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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN 



a jHemorial 







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CAMBRIDGE 

princeB at ttje Ufomsitx pttstf 

1893 



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Copyright, 1893, 
By Mbs. LOUISA BURNS CHAPIN. 

Ail rights reserved. 



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The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 



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"He likes nothing better than to do kind 
acts in a quiet way" 

" When will we learn that with all true men 
it is not what they intend to do, but it is 
what the qualities of their natures bind 
them to do, that determines their career ? " 

" Life is neither a pleasure nor a pain ; it 
is a serious business, to be entered on with 
courage, and in a spirit of self-sacrifice" 

" New occasions teach new duties, 
Time makes ancient good uncouth. 
They must upward still, and onward, 
Who would keep abreast of truth" 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The story of every man, who has success- 
fully risen to a position of usefulness or emi- 
nence, ought to be tqld. Such accounts en- 
courage those who are themselves struggling 
upwards, and also lead any who have already 
succeeded to stretch out the helping hand to 
others who are still in the thick of the fight. 
The following simple record of a self-made 
man could in no way better carry out his aim 
in life, than by serving either of these two 
purposes. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Chapin's correspondence 
has not been preserved, and, consequently, this 
sketch lacks the charm which is always felt 
when one tells his own story. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ETHAN SAMUEL 

CHAPIN . # 1 

MR. CHAPIN'S SCIENTIFIC VIEWS .... 64 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 



Ethan Samuel Chapin, the son of Samuel 
Chapin, Jr., and of Mary Pease, was 
born at Somers, Conn., on the 14th 
of July, 1814. He was a direct descendant 
in the seventh generation of Deacon Samuel 
Chapin, one of the earliest settlers of Spring- 
field, Mass., who came to this city with his 
family in 1642, and who, after serving 

. i • i • Ancestry. 

as magistrate and in other important 
offices, died here in 1675. The bronze statue 
representing a Puritan settler of New England, 
which stands in Stearns Park, was erected as a 
memorial to this Deacon Samuel Chapin. He 
was one of the committee that laid out the 
towns of Northampton and Hadley, which, 
with Springfield as the shire town, were formed 
into the county of Hampshire in 1662. The 
descendants of this Deacon Chapin have been, 
like himself, " useful and highly esteemed " 
men. Samuel Chapin, Sr., the grandfather of 
Mr. Ethan Chapin, died in 1833, at the age of 



2 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

ninety-one. He had served as an ensign dur- 
ing the Revolutionary War, and in consequence 
was always called " Ensign Chapin." Also, 
Mr. Ethan Chapin's maternal grandfather, 
Stephen Pease, was an officer in the War for 
Independence, and was present at the battle 
of Stillwater, and at the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. Thus, on both his father's and his 
mother's side, Mr. Ethan Chapin came of hon- 
orable and Revolutionary stock. 

Some time before his death Samuel Chapin, 
Father's ^r., just mentioned, mortgaged his 
failure. farm at Somers. His son, Samuel 
Chapin, Jr., who took charge of it at too high 
a valuation, soon found himself seriously in- 
volved, and had to give up the entire estate. 

The gentle spirit of Mr. Chapin was almost 
overwhelmed by this sore calamity. He was 
sustained and the family character preserved 
chiefly by the Christian courage of his strong- 
minded wife, Mrs. Mary Pease Chapin. 

At this time Ethan was but nine years old. 
There were then eight children in the family, 
and it became necessary in the changed cir- 
cumstances to make, without delay, new plans 
for each one. The older children had already 
received a fair common-school education, and 
consequently were at once able to do some- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 3 

thing for themselves. The misfortune fell most 
heavilv upon Ethan, who was sent to Effect on 

" • i • i p i a Ethan's 

live with his grandfather, Stephen prospects. 
Pease. Although he was allowed to attend 
school a part of the time for three years, he 
was given no school-books, and was therefore 
unable to make any satisfactory progress in his 
studies. His school -days practically ended 
when he was but nine years old, — an age at 
which, in those days, most boys had hardly 
begun to study. 

Early in his teens this young lad went out 
to begin the hard battle of life for Beginsto 
himself. Removed from the restraints ®wn fo£ 
of home life, without friends to guide tune ' 
or to help him, and without the ballast which a 
good common-school education gives, he began 
working in a weaving establishment at Chicopee 
Falls, then called Cabotville. He experienced 
all the disadvantages of extreme poverty, often 
went to bed hungry, and suffered cold for lack 
of sufficient clothing. Like many another 
high-spirited young man, he often felt much 
ashamed of his very humble lot. These experi- 
ences, however, were by no means an unmixed 
evil. He learned in this hard school those 
habits of patience, industry, economy, and self- 
reliance which in time made of him a strong 
man. 



4 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

" Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well thy part, there all the honor lies." 

Ethan was never fond of play, and even 
Boyhood while a boy joined but little in the 
traits. sports of the children of his own 

age. Nor was he fond of farming. Being 
a farmer's son, and living during his boy- 
hood on a farm, he had to do his share of 
the lighter chores, and later on of the harder 
labor, but his heart was never in this kind of 
work. 

While the other boys were playing, he was 
trying to make something with whatever tools 
he might find. Before he was ten years of 
age, he had made a little water-wheel, which he 
successfully set up in a stream that ran near 
to his father's house ; and not long after, he de- 
vised and made, without a suggestion from any 
one, a number of fairly good locks. He was un- 
usually mature, and delighted in poring over 
books, in thinking out some novel theory for ex- 
plaining what he saw about him in nature, and 
in making new things with his own hands. One 
day, hearing his uncle, who was a teacher and an 
intelligent man, speak of the sun's drawing up 
water, he immediately corrected the statement, 
and proceeded to describe, in a thorough and 
exact way, the scientific theory of evaporation. 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 5 

Ethan, therefore, left his grandfather's farm 
as soon as possible, and went to work, Experf- 
in a factory as a bobbin boy. The ^wT 
operatives began work before sunrise, factones - 
as soon as there was light enough to see, and 
labored fourteen and a half hours a day / 
Beginning so early in the day, all went to the 
workshops before eating, and were allowed 
twenty minutes for breakfast ! Those who 
were a trifle late were locked out ! Mr. 
Chapin was one of three boys who worked 
together carrying bobbins. One of those com- 
panions, who is still living, and is now a 
prominent and successful man, in writing of 
those early days says : " Our duty was to draw 
bobbins, by means of a rope attached to a 
box divided into two compartments, one for 
the empty bobbins, the other to receive the 
full ones. I can hear the rattle of those old 
looms to-day, and see in imagination the three 
young boys dragging their boxes along, and 
the women scolding because we did not come 
sooner. I remember we got very tired every 
night. Ethan was a tall, slim boy, kind- 
hearted and good-natured. We were both poor 
boys, of course, and our earnings went to our 
parents. Very small they were, however." 

The same friend, on first hearing of Mr. 



6 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN, 

Chapin's death, wrote, " Ethan Chapin was a 
Christian boy, and a great and good man." 

From this establishment young Chapin went 
to work at the Ames Arms factory in Chicopee. 
Later he worked at Ruggles & Davis's gun- 
shop at Staff ordville, and still later he returned 
to the Ames factory. 

The five years from 1832 to 1836 were 
Mechanical s P en * * n these various manufactories. 
tastes. During this period he exhibited more 

and more a remarkable genius for mechanics. 
He soon learned to understand all the machin- 
ery in each of the establishments where he 
was employed. In addition to this, Ethan al- 
ways took keen delight in planning means for 
improving any machine. He was constantly 
devising something new. His services as a de- 
signer of ornamentations for swords, scabbards, 
and the handles of guns and pistols, were 
highly prized. He was also very greatly valued 
for his skill in executing such designs with his 
own hands. 

Although never taught the engraver's art, 
both his mind and his hand seemed to take 
naturally to it. The exigencies of his work 
Receives a led him frequently to design and to 
skill. make new tools. With these im- 

proved instruments he was able to turn out 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 7 

more and more delicate work. At one time, an 
especially fine design for a sword handle being 
desired, a prize was offered for the best. Mr. 
Chapin's was the one to which the prize was 
awarded. There are still in the possession of 
the family a number of similar articles made 
about this time by Mr. Chapin. Among them 
is a pistol, which was entirely of Mr. Chapin's 
own design and workmanship. It is seven 
inches long. The handle is made of the root 
of a maple-tree, which Mr. Chapin himself cut 
and fitted. On the steel are engraved very 
fine designs, representing a dog in the chase, 
and an eagle in flight. The pistol cannot, of 
course, compare with the weapons now turned 
out at the Springfield factories, but fifty or sixty 
years ago it was considered, and with reason, 
first-class work. 

When Mr. Chapin left the Ames factory 
he was esteemed the most skillful workman 
in the establishment. While still less than 
nineteen he was made an overseer. Many a 
man much older than he was glad to receive 
suggestions from this modest and ingenious 
young man. 

While at the Ames factory, and before he 
was twenty years of age, young Cha- Studious . 
pin came into possession of a copy of ness# 



8 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Comstock's Natural Philosophy, and afterwards 
of a book on Chemistry. These two books were 
fairly consumed, such enthusiasm and interest 
did they excite in his mind. They laid the 
foundation for all his future studies. He kept 
these books near by while at work, and read 
them as opportunity offered. For this studi- 
ousness he was frequently chided by the over- 
seer. No exciting novels of Zola or Haggard 
ever stirred the feelings of a sentimental young 
man more than did these solid books the stu- 
dious and thoughtful inclinations of Ethan S. 
Chapin. 

Many interesting incidents of this early pe- 

inventive r ' 10 ^ °^ ^is ^ e > which show the de- 
gemus. cided mechanical and scientific bent 

of his mind, are now told. At the Ames fac- 
tory there was a man who attempted to invent 
a new kind of water-wheel. Knowing of Mr. 
Chapin's tastes and skill, he consulted him in 
regard to every minute thing, adding parts, and 
omitting or altering others, at his suggestion. 
The final success of the wheel was due to Mr. 
Chapin as much as to the inventor. In the 
factory at Staffordville there was a workman 
who tried to develop the theory of " perpetual 
motion," until Mr. Chapin convinced him that 
he was wrong, and that his theory was wholly 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 9 

impracticable. While at the Ames gun factory 
Mr. Chapin invented, and made with his own 
hands, a gun-lock, which was sent i^n^a 
on to Washington. This, for some ^- lock - 
unaccountable reason, was not patented. One 
very similar to it in construction has since 
been extensively used. In a book by Lieu- 
tenant J. A. Dahlgren, on " Naval Percussion 
Locks and Primers," printed at Philadelphia 
in 1853, there is given the following descrip- 
tion of a gun-lock : — " 

" The only apparatus of this kind (cannon 
percussion lock) that has come to our notice, 
which embodies a high degree of mechanical 
ingenuity with a probable fitness for the pur- 
pose of its creation, is a sample in this depart- 
ment, which was sent down from the Bureau 
among a parcel of rubbish ; bearing no name, 
date, or other record of time, place, or inven- 
tor." Following this there is full description 
of the lock, and then the author goes on to 
say : " The description cannot do justice to the 
ingenuity of the contrivance, and to the excel- 
lence of the finish by which it is developed." 
This book of Lieutenant Dahlgren's fell into 
Mr. Chapin's hands. Reading the above para- 
graph and the description of the lock referred 
to, he immediately saw that the lock was the 



10 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

one which he had invented and sent on to 
Washington years before. On the margin of 
the book, in his own handwriting, there is the 
following note : — 

" E. S. Chapin's design for a lock, made about 1834, at 
the age of twenty.' ' 

In order to aid him in his studies and experi- 
Eariyex- ments, he suspended in a barn, with 
penments. foe assistance of one of his brothers, 
a simple pendulum, whose movements he ob- 
served with very great care. He was greatly 
impressed when he noticed for the first time 
that such a pendulum not only swings back 
and forth, but also, while moving, completes a 
circle. 

Subsequently, during the war, a gentleman 
who had invented a new rifle-shell, and who 
was passing through Springfield on his way to 
Washington, stopped at the Massasoit House. 
Hearing of Mr. Chapin's interest in such things, 
he showed him the shell, carefully describing it 
and the principles involved in its construction. 
The description had not yet been completed 
when Mr. Chapin said to the inventor : " This 
shell is useless. Instead of moving as you sup- 
pose, it will turn over and strike the object 
aimed at with the other end." These im- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 11 

promptu observations proved to be entirely 
correct. 

The year 1836 marks an important change 
in Mr. Chapin's life. He had already Begins ho _ 
gained success as a machinist. His tel - kee P m s- 
occupation was more than congenial. It was 
one for which he had unusual fitness, and in 
which, without doubt, he would have become 
distinguished. His friends have often regretted 
that anything should have turned him away 
from this profession. * In this feeling Mr. 
Chapin himself more or less shared. 

His older brother, Mr. Marvin Chapin, had 
been living for some time in Westfield, but in 
1836 bought the old Cabot House at Cabot- 
ville, and, needing help, sent for Ethan to join 
him in the new venture. Anxious to be of 
service to his brother, and aware that his eyes 
were being injured and even his health seri- 
ously undermined by his present occupation, 
Ethan immediately gave up his place at the 
Ames factory, and joined his brother in the 
care of the hotel. This sudden change of oc- 
cupation was clearly providential, as it was 
unsought for, reminding us that " God is the 
master of the scenes. We must not choose 
which part we shall act. It concerns us only 
to be careful that we do it well." 



12 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

At one time or another, all of the four bro- 
thers, Marvin, Ethan, Albert, and Horace, shared 
in the responsibilities of the Cabot House. For 
a time it was carried on by Ethan and Albert, 
but again came into the hands of the two who 
had begun with it in 1836 as the firm of 
Marvin & Ethan Chapin, and so remained un- 
til July, 1843, when they removed to Spring- 
field. 

The conduct of these brothers toward each 
The Chapin other was exceedingly interesting. 
brothers. There was a spirit of family loyalty 
among them which was very unusual. Each 
one seemed to regard the other's interests as 
identical with his own. The fact that one of 
them was needed by another, in order to the 
success of some plan or business undertaking 
upon which either one of them had entered, 
was a sufficient reason for his giving up his 
personal enterprise in order to meet the needs 
of his brother. The results which these men 
have attained have been due, in no small meas- 
ure, to the fact that they have thus stood by 
each other in every time of need. It was 
largely due to this same spirit that Mr. Ethan 
Chapin became a hotel-keeper and a business 
man, rather than a mechanic and an inventor. 

Mr. Chapin lived for six years at the Cabot 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 13 

House in Chicopee, and while living there he 
was married on the 22d of Septem- 

AT 3.TTIGS 

ber, 1839, to Louisa Burns, the 
daughter of John Cogswell and Mary Marble 
Burns, of East Windsor, Conn., where she 
was born in February, 1814. They have had 
five children, — Amelia, the wife of the Hon. 
William Henry Haile ; Henry Watson, who 
married Ellen A. Trask, and who died in 1870 ; 
Emma Frances, the wife of Mr. Henry S. 
Ward, of New York city ; Anna Pauline, who 
died in infancy ; and Alice Sophia, who was 
long an invalid, and who died in 1880. 

The building of the Boston and Albany Rail- 
road through Springfield, in 1838, Mr . Marvin 
assured the future growth and impor- n^nder- 
tance of the city. Those who fore- takin s- 
saw this growth and took advantage of it soon 
reaped the benefit of their wisdom. Previous 
to this date, Court Square had been the centre 
of the town, as it was the centre of business. 
All the leading taverns, such as The Exchange 
and the Hampden Coffee House, were in that 
vicinity. 

In 1842 the Judge John Hooker property, 
standing south of the railroad and west of 
Main Street, was offered for sale. The prop- 
erty contained an acre and a half, and meas- 



14 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

ured one hundred and eighty feet on Main 
Street. It was without question the best site 
in Springfield for a hotel which hoped to 
catch the growing railroad traffic. Foreseeing 
this, Mr. Marvin Chapin, in partnership with 
Mr. Israel M. Parsons, of Westfield, purchased 
it at auction for $ 8,000. The old house was 
moved back, and a contract was immediately 
made for the erection of a brick block, to be 
used as a hotel. 

Although the original building was but one 
fifth the size of the present hotel, the whole 
undertaking was, for those times, a large one. 
Neither of the partners had money. The place 
had, therefore, to be mortgaged, in order that 
the purchase might be completed and the new 
building erected. It is not strange, under 
these circumstances, that Mr. Parsons became 
alarmed at the risks assumed in the enterprise, 
and withdrew. Again Mr. Marvin Chapin sent 
Mr. Ethan ^ or his brother Ethan, who imnime- 
jtinf his diately came and filled the gap. He 
brother. bought out Mr. Parsons's interest in 
the partnership, and, forming with his brother 
the firm of M. & E. S. Chapin, started the well- 
known Massasoit House, which under their 
management has since been one of the most 
successful hotels of its kind in the country. 




O 



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LU 

I 

H 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 15 

While the construction of the new building 
was being pushed forward as rapidly as Naraing . the 
possible, various names, such as " The new hotel * 
Massachusetts/' "The Massasoit," and "The 
United States/' were suggested for the pro- 
posed hotel. The first of these names was seri- 
ously considered, and would have been adopted 
but for the well-known unpopularity of a hotel 
of the same name in Boston. Before anything 
had yet been definitely settled by those most 
interested, two barbers, who had rented the 
basement room on the corner of Main and Rail- 
road streets, afterwards occupied for years by 
Powers's well-known news - room, practically 
decided the question. They hung up their 
sign, and advertised in the " Springfield Repub- 
lican " that they were ready to receive patrons 
at their new shop under the " Massasoit House." 
The friends of the Chapins were generally very 
much disappointed in this choice of a name, 
and remonstrated with them in regard to it. 
It was said that many could not spell or pro- 
nounce it ; that it could not be remembered by 
those who had been pleased with the hotel on 
a first visit, and wished to come to it a second 
time ; and that it was an odd and awkward 
name. Experience has shown that this unusual 
name helped to secure for the hotel its unusual 



16 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

success. There have been all kinds of hotels, 

but only one " Massasoit House." 

The hotel was opened on the 27th of June, 

The Massa- 1843. The first name registered on 
soit House. itg books was that of Horace Mann. 

It was a first-class hotel at a time when such 
houses were rare. It was a pioneer, meeting 
the wants of the times, and hence its unique 
career. 

The affairs of the Massasoit House were 
conducted by the two brothers, Marvin and 
Ethan, who constituted the firm, in a spirit of 
mutual helpfulness and harmony. Everything 
moved on with as little friction as if there had 
been one master mind, instead of two, at the 
head of the establishment. Each had his own 
distinct department, which he ordered wisely, 
and in such a way as to supplement his bro- 
ther's work. Mr. Marvin Chapin was a far- 
Mr. Marvin sighted financier. Naturally all the 
depart 1 - 8 financial affairs of the firm were left 
ment - to his careful hands. He first selected 

the site for and launched the enterprise which, 
under the united skill and efforts of the two 
brothers, grew to be one of the best -known 
hotels in the country. 

The practical and general management of 
the Massasoit House was left in the hands of 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 17 

the younger brother, who gave himself enthu- 
siastically and patiently to the over- Mr. Ethan 
sight of everything, great or small, ^par£' s 
connected with the establishment. ment# 
The building has been enlarged three times, 
and each time all the plans were made, and all 
the details of building were carried out, under 
the careful oversight of Mr. Ethan Chapin. 
His inventive genius and mechanical skill were 
frequently put to use in improving the arrange- 
ments of the hotel. The laundry, the kitchen, 
the engine-room, and other parts of the build- 
ing were fitted up with various devices of his 
own for lightening labor, saving expense, and 
for furthering the comfort both of the guests 
and of the employees. He was always on the 
lookout for new things, his mechanical skill 
enabling him to see with great shrewdness their 
probable utility. The Massasoit House was 
one of the first hotels to make use of steam for 
cooking. Mr. Chapin had thought of such a 
possibility in connection with his studies, and, 
finding that steam had already been tried else- 
where with success, immediately decided to in- 
troduce it into his own hotel. 

On several occasions, finding the man in 
charge of the engine too ill to do his work, 
he immediately ordered him home, and sent 



18 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN, 

word to the office that he was occupied and 
could not be seen. Then, pulling on some 
overalls, he went to work in the midst of the 
oil, the steam, and the dirt of the engine-room 
with as much earnestness as if this were his reg- 
ular employment, and his work was well done. 
There are few hotels whose proprietors either 
could or would have done this service. At an- 
other time, the engineer wished some additions 
to be made, which would involve a good deal of 
expense, but which, he claimed, would greatly 
improve the engine. The idea was entirely his 
own, and he confessed that it was an experi- 
ment, but so confident was he that it would 
succeed that he offered to pay the whole ex- 
pense in case the experiment proved useless. 
He only asked permission to carry out his 
scheme, and to have the firm meet the expense 
in case it should succeed. On hearing this pro- 
posal, Mr. Chapin asked to have the new con- 
trivance explained to him. He listened care- 
fully, and saw that the engineer's ideas were 
good, and the carrying out of them quite fea- 
sible. He therefore authorized the expense, 
and refused to allow the poor workman to bear 
any of the responsibility, as the man had vol- 
unteered to do. 

No pains nor expense were spared by the 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 19 

proprietors of the Massasoit House to make 
it a first-class hotel. Mr. Chapin trav- 

1 ... nil Enterprise. 

eled tar and near, visiting ail the best 
hotels, and examining carefully into their man- 
agement, in order to get suggestions for im- 
proving his own. The wants of every guest 
were carefully considered and, if possible, met. 
The manager of another hotel once came to 
Mr. Chapin to warn him about a certain young 
man w r ho had come over to the Massasoit 
House from his hotel, * adding, " You cannot 
afford to keep that boarder, he is so trouble- 
some." The young man was then waiting for 
the dinner-gong to sound. On hearing it, he 
rushed to the dining-room, and, finding a dish 
of luscious peaches on one of the tables, he be- 
gan looking them over for the purpose of se- 
lecting the best. Mr. Chapin quietly ordered 
the waiter to keep the young man well sup- 
plied w r ith the best peaches in the house. At 
the other hotel he had found it necessary to 
be on hand early, in order to have his wants 
supplied. Observing that this was not required 
at the Massasoit House, he immediately changed 
his conduct, and made no further trouble while 
he remained in the house. 

Mr. Chapin' s conduct toward all his associ- 
ates and employees was wise as well as kind and 



20 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 



Treatment 
of em- 
ployees. 



considerate. A young man, who was employed 
in the office, was once left in charge 
of everything for several days, during 
Mr. Chapin's absence on business. Taking ad- 
vantage of the young man's extreme youth and 
inexperience, a colored porter, who had long 
been employed there and who was a useful 
man, was very impudent. This conduct was re- 
ported to Mr. Chapin on his return. He imme- 
diately called the porter, and, in the presence of 
the clerk, asked if the report of his conduct 
was true. The man admitted that it was. Mr. 
Chapin immediately paid him up in full, and 
then said that, although he was sorry to do so, 
he must dismiss him, as it would not do to allow 
the one who represented the proprietors to be 
treated as he had recently treated the clerk. 
The latter interceded for the delinquent, who 
promised to do better in the future, and was 
forgiven. Such a course as this, uniformly 
followed, made it always easy to control the 
affairs of the establishment. 

A poor man, who had been employed for 
several years in the Massasoit House, once came 
to Mr. Chapin, and, with a good deal of diffi- 
dence, said that he needed two hundred dollars 
that very day. Mr. Chapin immediately offered 
to lend him that amount, saying that he might 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 21 

pay the debt at his convenience, and that he 
would never ask for the money, even if it were 
not paid, — a promise he faithfully kept, as the 
debt was not paid until after his death. 

This same man, thinking that he could better 
himself, left the Massasoit House for a number 
of years, but being unsuccessful he returned to 
Springfield. Before securing employment both 
he and his wife fell seriously ill. Mr. Chapin, 
hearing of their condition, went to see them 
every day, supplied them with the best that the 
hotel could furnish, and even sent a nurse to 
care for them until they were well, when the 
man was again employed. 

On one occasion the young clerk at the 
office fell ill, and his father came to take him 
home. He was persuaded not to do so that 
day. The next morning the young man asked 
his father if he were ready to take him home. 
The old gentleman replied : " I don't think 
you had better go. Mr. Chapin wants you so 
much that he says he would rather have you, 
with white kid gloves on and your hands tied 
behind your back, than any one else he knows ; 
so I guess you had better stay here. Mr. 
Chapin will take good care of you." This 
shows how Mr. Chapin appreciated a man who 
was serving him well. The young man had 



22 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

not known before how highly his services were 
valued. 

Remembering the disadvantages against 
Helpfulness which he, while a poor lad, had strug- 
men. gled, Mr. Chapin made it his business 

through life to encourage and help . along 
worthy young men who were trying to better 
their condition. Even boys who had been em- 
ployed as waiters were promoted from one situa- 
tion to another, until many of them are now 
occupying important positions as useful men, 
to which they were aided by the kind man for 
whom they once worked. 

On another occasion the storekeeper of a 
new shop, at which Mr. Chapin was making 
large purchases for the hotel, hearing the pur- 
chaser's name, asked, " Are you Mr. Ethan 
Chapin of the Massasoit House ? ,? Being told 
that he was, he expressed much gratification, 
saying, " I would go a long distance to see 
the man who can make a millionaire out of 
a poor waiter-boy ! " He had heard of a 
wealthy and successful business man, who 
was formerly a waiter at the Massasoit House, 
and who attributes his success in life largely to 
Mr. Chapin's influence. 

One day a gentleman, who had dined at 
the hotel, called Mr. Chapin and introduced 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 23 

him to his wife, who was with him, and said : 
" My wife has never known until to-day that 
I be^an life as a waiter here in the Massasoit 
House, but I wish her now to know the man 
who helped me to become what I am." There 
are a number of such men, who, stimulated 
by Mr. Chapin's example and helped along 
by his advice and encouragement, have become 
prominent and successful in various spheres 
of life. 

Mr. Chapin, being a thoughtful and modest 
man, was also naturally reticent. Mr. 

. , , ,. , , Chapin's 

Ims gave to those who did not know reticence. 
him the impression that he was unfeeling. 
One who afterwards came to understand him 
thoroughly says : " He was so exact, and at the 
same time so just, that I could hardly get over 
the feeling, which took possession of me when 
I first met him, of standing in fear of him. 
His observant faculties, however, were so keen 
that I think he realized what thoughts were 
passing through my mind, and he soon became 
very lenient and careful." There were many 
for whom Mr. Chapin had a very high regard 
who were quite ignorant of the fact. He was 
frequently heard to remark, when learning of 
the death of some friend or acquaintance, " He 
did not know how much I thought of him.' 5 



24 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 



The proprietors of the Massasoit House 
Treatment proved themselves to be, during the 
of soldiers. Q[ Y {\ War, among the most loyal of 
the citizens of Springfield. When the first 
Massachusetts troops passed through the city, 
the whole north end of the hotel was beauti- 
fully illuminated, and hot coffee with refresh- 
ments was distributed to the men. The same 
was done when the Second Regiment was in 
Springfield, on its way to the front. Later, 
when the veterans began to return, great at- 
tention was always paid to them. No one of 
them, whatever his circumstances, was allowed 
to go unserved. All this was well known, but 
what is not equally a matter of common report 
is the part which Ethan Chapin played in help- 
ing the negroes to escape in the dark and un- 
settled days before the war. On more than 
one occasion, with the knowledge of but few in 
the city, he concealed, either on his own prem- 
ises or near by, parties of these negroes, whom 
he fed and cared for until arrangements were 
completed for sending them farther north. 
The Massasoit House was thus one of the 
stations of that " Underground Rail- 
road " which safely conveyed hun- 
dreds of fugitives from the South to Canada 
and to freedom. Those were days when the 



Under- 
ground 
Railroad 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 25 

principles and the courage of anti-slavery men 
were put to the most severe test. Mr. Chapin 
was one of those men, all too rare, whose prin- 
ciples do not vary with circumstances. 

Although the money matters connected with 
the hotel were largely in the hands of strict integ- 
his brother, yet Mr. Ethan Chapin rity - 
also was a very careful, shrewd, and successful 
business man. Of all his business qualities, 
his strict integrity was the crown. One who 
was intimately associated with him all his life 
says : " I trusted him implicitly in everything, 
and he never cheated me of a single cent. He 
never wanted anything that belonged to me, 
and never let me take what was his. He was 
perfectly true." Speaking of him in this same 
line, one of the leading ministers of Springfield 
said that the city owed a great deal to such 
men as Mr. Chapin, mentioning with him a 
number of others of the same stamp, especially 
the Merriam Brothers. He gave it as his opin- 
ion that, as the result of the decided and high 
moral stand taken by these men, certain kinds 
of business of doubtful character had never 
been introduced into Springfield and could not 
enter the city. Certainly this was high praise. 
The memory of the men who have left such a 
legacy to any place ought to be preserved with 
jealous care. 



26 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Although a quiet and unobtrusive man, Mr. 
Chapin's successful management of the Massa- 
Mr soit House was known to all. Nat- 

bu^ess 8 urally his advice came to be more and 
talent. more sought. He was asked to be- 

come a director in several important companies, 
where it was felt that his advice and character 
would be of weight. At one time he was 
strongly urged to accept the presidency of one 
of the largest incorporated companies in Spring- 
field. In this case it w T as proposed that he 
should also have the practical superintendence 
of the concern. There is little doubt but that 
Mr. Chapin would have been as successful in 
these lines of business as in that to which he 
had devoted himself, but he persistently refused 
to be drawn into any of them. It was only in 
later years, when he was giving up active work 
at the hotel, and that at the urgent advice of 
family and other friends, that he consented to 
become one of the directors of the Chapin 
Bank. 

While unwilling to be turned aside from 
his chosen work to any other business, he was 
always interested in public affairs, and gladly 
The Spring- bore his share in every scientific, phi- 

field Public . . it- 

Library. lanthropic, and religious movement. 
When the Springfield City Library was organ- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 27 

ized, in 1857, Mr. Chapin was one of those 
who took a practical and lively interest in it. 
The library was first opened in a room on 
Main Street, but was removed to quarters in 
the City Hall in 1860. The books at that 
time were both few and ill-kept. Those were 
the days of small things for an institution 
which has grown to be one of the ornaments 
of this prosperous city. The library, with its 
eighty thousand " volumes, now ranks as the 
seventh in number of books, and the fifth in 
expenditure, among the public libraries of the 
United States, and is accommodated in a build- 
ing well adapted to its purpose. In 1864, 
when a charter was first secured for the library, 
Mr. Chapin was one of the original incorpo- 
rators. Later, in 1871, he was one of those 
whose generous gifts helped to the purchase 
of the present beautiful site and building. In 
every time of its need, Mr. Chapin took a very 
deep interest in the growth and success of the 
Public Library. 

The Springfield Hospital, the School for 
Christian Workers, and the French Other ob- 
Protestant Church are some of the terest. 
other enterprises to which he contributed, and 
for the success of which he earnestly hoped. 
Among the various objects to which he gave, 



28 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

and of which most of his friends know no- 
things is a most excellent institution in Ahmed- 
nagar, India, called " The Chapin Home." 
This home was begun in 1884, by Miss Sarah 
J. Hume, with funds given for the purpose by 
Mr. Chapin, as a memorial to his daughter 
Alice, who had died in 1880. 

The object of " The Chapin Home " is one 
"The which appealed strongly to his feel- 

Chapin . i i • • i mi • • 

Home." mgs and to his judgment. 1ms in- 
stitution not only offers a home to worthy and 
needy women, but gives them an opportunity, 
as far as possible, to support themselves. The 
more ignorant are taught to read, while all re- 
ceive instruction in sewing and cooking. Some 
have been taught to make buttons, and to do 
various kinds of useful needlework. The pur- 
pose of the institution is to help the poor to 
become self-supporting, a matter of the very 
highest importance in a country like India. 
The following notice of the home appeared a 
few years ago in one of the Bombay papers, 
from which the estimation in which it is held 
may be understood : — 

" The Chapin Home, so called from a donor 
in the United States, is a modest institution 
which will escape the notice of the visitor un- 
less specially inquired for, but which will 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 29 

repay a visit, under the guidance of Miss Hume, 
through whose energy it exists. It has long 
been a problem to know what to do with the 
Hindu women who, desirous of becoming Chris- 
tians, are set adrift by their friends, and those 
who, for other reasons, find themselves friend- 
less and helpless, and apply for aid. Miss 
Hume has solved this problem by " establishing 
this home. All women who are admitted are 
taught to read and write, but special instruc- 
tion is given in sewing, and in the cutting out 
and making of native garments. They form 
a staff of nurses, and are sent to help in the 
care of the sick, or go out for domestic work. 
For these services they receive money, and 
they will soon be able entirely to support them- 
selves. All are required to study and work, so 
that the home is in no sense a poorhouse. At 
present there are ten inmates. One is a Brah- 
min widow. This home will give a hearty 
welcome to any widows who wish to learn to 
support themselves, and at the same time are 
willing to learn Christian truth." 

As in other things, so too, in the matter of 
giving, Mr. Chapin was not led by Mr. Chapin 

-. TT -j .... -. an intelli- 

lmpulse. He acted on principle, and gent giver. 
only after due deliberation. He gave systemat- 
ically and generously to the various religious 



30 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

objects, but he was often heard to say that, if 
he could give to but one object, that one 
should be The American Sunday School 
Union. His practical, business insight led 
him to feel that the surest and best returns 
come from efforts for the young. 

Mr. Chapin very enthusiastically and gener- 
Work for ously £ave his services to help on the 

the "First , . . , niii 

Church." business schemes 01 the churches with 
which he was identified. He was the efficient 
chairman of the committee which made the 
extensive repairs on the old First Church, when 
it was modernized, in 1863, by the removal of 
the old pulpit, the introduction of a large 
platform with a small desk, the cutting down 
of the pews, and by frescoing. It was the 
unanimous opinion of all that the alterations 
were very successfully made, and that the chief 
credit for this success was due to Mr. Chapin. 

It was, however, especially in connection 
Connection w ^k *k e Memorial Church, which was 
-Memorial organized in 1865, that Mr. Chapin 
Church." showed himself an invaluable helper. 
This church was organized largely by men of 
enterprise, ability, and character, both from a 
religious and a worldly point of view. It did 
not pass, as many societies do, through a grad- 
ual process of evolution, from a weak society 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 31 

with a precarious existence into a strong church. 
It was strong from the outset. In such a 
church and among such men it was that Mr. 
Chapin felt at home, and was appreciated. He 
was one of the incorporators of this church. 
At the first meeting of the parish he was the 
first member chosen on the building committee, 
a committee in which he was associated with 
such men as the late Dr. J. G. Holland, G. M. 
Atwater, Esq., and others. The contracts for 
building the church edifice were made by this 
committee, which had full charge of the entire 
work. Mr. Chapin was elected a member of 
the business committee of this church each 
year from 1872 to 1887. He was a member 
of the society's committee, which, with the com- 
mittee of the church, was appointed to extend 
a call to the Rev. W. T. Eustis, who became 
the first pastor of the church. He was also on 
many other committees appointed from time to 
time for the consideration of various matters of 
importance. Thus for more than twenty years 
he stood as one of the pillars of this church of 
Christ, serving it in every possible way. 

Mr. Chapin's relations with the various pas- 
tors whose ministry he enjoyed were Mr. Chapin 
of the most familiar kind. The testi- ioner. 
mony which they have given is exceedingly 



32 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

interesting. In writing about him, one of them 
says : " He was a warm personal friend through 
all my ministry. I have a most delightful re- 
membrance of all his genial qualities, in a per- 
sonal intimacy and friendship extending over 
more than a quarter of a century. He was a 
man upon whom his pastor could rely in every 
emergency as true and trusty and wise." 

Many, in a great variety of positions in lif e, 
Mr. Chapin can g* ve siixiilar witness to the faith- 
as a friend. £ u l ness anc [ the value of his friend- 
ship. Says one who was long in his employ 
in the Massasoit House, " I felt toward Mr. 
Chapin as toward no other man, not even my 
own father, he showed such an interest in 
me." Says another who was a lifelong friend : 
" His kind acts, which were constant, drew me 
to him as a boy, during the first years of our 
acquaintance, when hardly a word escaped his 
lips expressing his attachment to me. He in- 
fluenced me more by his love for me and inter- 
est in me than any other man who has crossed 
my path. Although more than three years 
have passed since I last saw him, still I often 
see him in my dreams to this day. In fact I 
dreamed of him only last night." 

Even strangers were impressed by those 
qualities which only his best friends fully un- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 33 

derstood. An Englishman, whom Mr. Chapin 
met in London in 1881, hearing of his death, 
writes : " I am sorry to think I shall not see 
the good man again. I never remember to 
have been so much impressed by a stranger as 
I was by him, and my wife felt the same, 
though she had the pleasure of seeing him but 
once." More than most men, he would wel- 
come a friend at the busiest moments, would 
turn aside with unfailing kindness to listen to 
all kinds of appeals for aid, or to manifest the 
courtesy which was his habitual treatment of 
all who sought his presence. 

" This matter of friendship is often regarded 
slightingly as a mere accessory of life, a happy 
chance if one falls into it, but not as entering 
into the substance of life. No mistake can be 
greater. It is the golden thread that ties the 
hearts of all the world." 

Mr. Chapin exceedingly disliked all ostenta- 
tion, and even the appearance of put- His diffi _ 
ting himself forward. His natural dence * 
courtesy, his simple tastes, and a diffidence 
which was caused by the consciousness of his 
lack of education, often made him silent and 
retiring where he was fitted to be a leader. 
In 1860, when the Rev. H. M. Parsons began 
his Bible service in the First Church, Mr. 



34 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Chapin, with many others, joined the pastor's 
class, but he did so after carefully stipulating 
that he should not be asked to answer any 
questions. Mr. Parsons promised not to call 
on him until he himself should choose to take 
part. This arrangement satisfied Mr. Chapin. 
The second Sabbath the lesson was on the 
miracle at Cana in Galilee, the turning of 
water into wine. While others were ventilat- 
ing their views on the passage, Mr. Chapin's 
interest grew more and more intense, until 
finally he broke out with the remark, " Could 
not the Almighty condense all the forces of 
nature, which ordinarily act in more extended 
periods of time, so that in an instant the 
product was seen in the good wine ? " The 
leader of the class assented, and then Mr. 
Chapin went on for five or ten minutes to the 
great edification of all in the class, speaking in 
simple language as he described the composi- 
tion of the grape up to its ripeness and expres- 
sion into wine. In his earnest desire to speak 
correctly and fluently, he would sometimes 
study the dictionary for hours, searching for 
suitable words with which to express his ideas. 
Mr. Chapin was hearty and genial in his 
domestic life. His enjoyment of the home 
consisted largely in planning for the comfort 




C5 

Z 



u 

z 



o 

z 
< 

I- 

LU 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 35 

and improvement of each member of the fam- 
ily. The beautiful place on Chestnut Mr Chapin 
Street, purchased in 1869, and occu- inhishome - 
pied the following year, was thoroughly en- 
joyed by him, not chiefly because it was more 
comfortable and convenient than the suite at 
the Massasoit House, which previously had been 
their home, but because it was more truly a 
home, and was therefore a better place for the 
family. He took great pains in remodeling the 
house and in furnishing it, with the purpose 
of adapting everything to the best comfort of 
the household, studying to make each part 
suit the needs and tastes of the one who was to 
occupy that particular apartment. Many can 
testify to the genial and loving atmosphere 
which pervaded the place, the chief element of 
which was Mr. Chapin's unselfish spirit. 

Remembering with keen regret the misfor- 
tune under which he had labored Self-denial 

, ., , , .. . for his chil- 

wnile a boy, he spared no pains to dren. 
save his children from all similar disadvantages. 
Their pleasure was his pleasure, and their profit 
his profit. He gave time to their recreations. 
They still remember his going out with them 
to skating parties simply because they enjoyed 
the fun. After strapping on their skates, he 
would stand or walk about in the cold until 



36 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

it was time to return home, when he would 
patiently help the daughters to remove them. 
His enjoyment of their pleasure was so sincere 
that no impression of self-denial on his part 
was left on any one's mind. " To be full of 
goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympa- 
thy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry 
blessings of which he is himself as unconscious 
as a lamp is of its own shining." 

It is not strange that the children were al- 
ways glad to have the good father with them. 
On one occasion, while in New York on busi- 
ness, he spent a good deal of time running 
about to five different places in search of a 
particular kind of card-case, for which he had 
heard one of his daughters express a desire. In 
later years, after he had become a grandfather, 
he showed the same interest in the enjoyments 
of his grandchildren. 

He was • never so much absorbed with the 
cares of an exacting business that he could 
not find leisure to work and plan for his chil- 
dren's welfare. While giving them such op- 
portunities as the best schools offered, he also 
sought to devise means for their physical and 
mental improvement. He gladly furnished 
them with good books, and tried to place be- 
fore them true and high standards in every- 
thing. 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 37 

The same spirit o£ helpfulness, and of de- 
light in others' pleasure, was seen in Thoughtfui- 

! . . . n 111* 1 neSS f ° r P ar " 

the spirit manifested by him toward ents. 
his parents, who spent their last years with 
their sons at the Massasoit House. No pains 
were spared to make them comfortable and 
happy. Members of the family remember with 
what earnestness he used, at family devotions, 
to pray for them : " As the light of their eyes 
grows dim, may they have light from above." 

Another expression often used by him in 
prayer was, " By the dispensations of thy provi- 
dence, which thou so often bringest near to 
us, we are reminded that we, too, soon must 
die, and after that the judgment." 

When any members of the family were away 
from home, he never failed to write correspon- 
long and valuable letters, full of wise dence * 
counsel. It is a matter for sincere regret that 
these letters have not been preserved. Mr. 
Chapin was so sensitive in regard to their 
supposed literary defects, that he insisted that 
his children and friends who were the fortu- 
nate recipients of these communications should 
promise to destroy them. One who received 
many letters from Mr. Chapin says of them 
that they were the most tender and the most 
valuable letters he had ever received. Mind- 



38 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

ful of the promise which he had given, he 
carried them on his person for a time and then 
concealed them, and only after reading and re- 
reading them did he at last reluctantly destroy 
them. He says : " The very thought of those 
letters brings tears to my eyes. I wish I never 
had promised to destroy a single one of them." 
Fortunately one letter has been preserved, 

Letter to a an( ^ * s gi yen below. It was written 
daughter. on h ear i n g ^he ver y welcome news 

that one of his children, while away from home, 
had become a Christian : — 

Springfield, July, 18 — . 

It was with unspeakable delight that I pe- 
rused your kind and interesting letter, even 
weeping for joy. I knew that you were 
thoughtful, but did not think that you were 
so near to the kingdom of heaven. I am glad 
that you did not wait. Delays are dangerous. 
The Spirit will not always strive with man. 
Cast your burdened soul entirely on your com- 
passionate Saviour. He is able, He is willing. 
Doubt no more. May your joy and rejoicing 
be great in His service on earth, and you be 
fitted to join in that endless song of praise ! 
Your happiness will be greatly increased while 
on earth if you enjoy the smiles of your Sa- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 39 

viour. May God give you wisdom, and direct 
your thoughts, and lead you in green pastures 
and beside still waters, and make your rejoi- 
cing complete in his continual mercies, which 
are new every morning, fresh every evening, 
and repeated every moment of our lives. The 
step that you have taken will, in a great meas- 
ure, ease the anxiety of mind that I had for 
you. Strong religious principles are needed 
to carry any one safely through this fallen 
world of sin and temptation. Give my kind 

regards to Miss B for her interest in your 

spiritual welfare. . . . 

From your affectionate father, with pleasing 
recollections, 

E. S. Chapin. 

The daughter to whom this letter was ad- 
dressed says : " My father wrote me very many 
and long letters when we were separated. In 
writing he always expressed himself well, and 
often in quite a poetical strain." 

This testimony is confirmed by all with 
whom Mr. Chapin corresponded. His great 
modesty led him to underestimate the value of 
everything that he did. He set his standards 
high, and aimed at perfection in all things. 
This habit still further aggravated his con- 



40 ETHAN SAMUEL ' CHAP IN. 

sciousness of any deficiency. On every point 
which implied a lack of education, Mr. Chapin 
was especially sensitive. He would even apolo- 
Seif-depre- g* ze ^ or *his to those with whom he 
ciation. happened to be in conversation. Says 
one who knew him well, and who regarded 
him as greatly his superior : " I used to feel 
humiliated when hearing him speak of his lack 
of an education, and often said to him : ' Mr. 
Chapin, it is not right for you to berate your- 
self as you do. No one else notices these 
things as you do. You expect too much of 
yourself.' " 

Mr. Chapin' s natural tastes showed them- 
Choice of selves very decidedly in the books 
books. which he chose both for himself and 
for his children. He never read anything triv- 
ial. He found no pleasure in the ordinary 
novels and stories which those about him de- 
voured with the greatest avidity. " I have no 
time for such things," he used often to say, 
which meant simply that he did not think 
them worth reading. Had he regarded their 
contents valuable, he would have found all the 
time that was needed for reading them, and 
that with care. Works containing condensed 
thoughts and weighty principles were always 
attractive to him. Of other books he often 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 41 

remarked : " I don't like to wade through so 
much to get so little." 

In addition to scientific works with which he 
was familiar, he valued histories, biographies,, 
books of travel, and also standard poetry. 
" The Lady of the Lake " was a great favorite 
of his. Among his books there is a small, 
well-worn copy of this poem, which, like his 
Bible, was often carried about in his pocket, 
and was a much-prized companion. He would 
often quote from it, with enthusiasm, passages 
which he had memorized. How plainly this 
shows us the possible combination of the gen- 
tler with the stronger traits so beautifully 
blended in Mr. Chapin's character ! 

The scrap-book, to which he was constantly 
adding for the last thirty years of his life, is 
chiefly made up of scientific items and articles, 
of religious anecdotes, and of choice pieces 
of poetry. Such a scrap-book is often a fair 
indication of the character of the man who 
made it. 

The tastes and characteristics developed by 

Mr. Chapin in literature manifested Enjoyment 
, , , iji-i°f ^ ne scen ~ 

themselves whenever he traveled, ery. 

While in Europe, which he twice visited, he 

sought first the museums, the art galleries, and 

the places famous for their beautiful scenery. 



42 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Those who accompanied him can never forget 
with what intense enjoyment he climbed the 
mountains in the Scottish Highlands, and 
looked down upon those charming lakes made 
famous by his favorite poet. When he crossed 
the grand old mountains of Switzerland, how 
he enjoyed to the full each new and beautiful 
landscape ! Here he also gladly seized a long- 
coveted opportunity for studying the movement 
of glaciers, a subject on which he had inde- 
pendent ideas, and about which he wrote fully 
in his books. Later, when in Southern Italy, 
nothing could restrain him from climbing to 
the top of Mount Vesuvius, or from going to 
the very edge of the crater, in order that he 
might examine for himself this wonderful vent 
of the internal furnaces of the earth. 

The various trips which he took, on our own 
Observing continent, through Canada, up the 
faculty. g^ Lawrence, down the Saguenay,, 
and also in the West, down the Mississippi, 
and through the South, were equally enjoyed, 
while they were made very profitable, as he 
never failed to notice each object of interest, 
and to draw some lessons from it. 

Much as he enjoyed all remarkable and his- 
Visitsto * or ^ c scenes > he found himself chiefly 
museums, attracted by the magnificent museums 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 43 

in the large cities of Europe. During the last 
six weeks spent in Europe in 188 1, he was in 
a hotel at South Kensington, very near to the 
South Kensington Museum. Day after day 
he visited the India Museum, the National 
Collection of Portraits, the Natural History 
Museum, or some other collection, never seem- 
ing to tire of studying them. The models of 
machinery and of boats, which he there dis- 
covered, furnished him with food for thought 
for a long time. 

Each day, as he returned elated with these 
visits, he would talk most enthusiastically with 
those about him, describing the things which 
he had seen, pointing out the defects or the 
excellences of what had chiefly attracted his 
attention. In addition to the fact that he en- 
joyed these frequent visits to the museums, his 
object in it all was to increase his knowledge, 
especially in the line of his scientific studies. 
He often expressed regret that he was not able 
to go to England again, in order that he might 
once more visit the South Kensington Museum. 

One day, when about forty years old, Mr. 
Chapin was shown a gyroscope. This R enewed 
greatly interested him, and he im- scientific 11 
mediately purchased one. The more studies - 
he thought about this wonderful little toy, the 



44 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

more he felt his old love for study and in- 
vestigation coming back to him. His scientific 
books were taken again from their shelves with 
the same zest as of old, and from that day may 
be dated the real beginning of his scientific 
work. The little gyroscope, which was the un- 
expected cause of this renewed study, has been 
treasured in the family as an heirloom. Mr. 
Chapin had already reached middle life when 
he fairly began those scientific studies, in the 
prosecution of which he showed himself to be a 
truly remarkable man. His attainments, in the 
face of obstacles which would have been insur- 
mountable to most men, furnish us with a most 
Progress impressive lesson. We find this man, 

under diffi- , , ., , , , , 

cuities. who while a boy had received so 
meagre an education that he could not write 
correctly, nor express his thoughts even orally 
with any degree of freedom, after reaching 
middle life, and under the pressure of business 
which allowed him leisure only when others 
were asleep, prosecuting with enthusiasm and 
success the most abstruse and difficult scien- 
tific studies. In the fight of such facts, one is 
almost tempted to say that a man may become 
whatever he chooses, irrespective of circum- 
stances. It is certainly true that the most ad- 
verse circumstances cannot belittle one who is 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 45 

inherently great or good. As Phillips Brooks, 
in his sermon on Lincoln, beautifully says : 
" The more we see of events, the less we come 
to believe in any fate or destiny except the 
destiny of character." 

" The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
Bat they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 

Mr. Chapin early became convinced that 
gravitation determines the form, the Importance 
condition, and the movements of the tion. 
earth and of all the celestial bodies. With this 
idea for the central point, and applying it to a 
great variety of cases, he developed a most 
elaborate system. Many of his ideas were new, 
and even contrary to the established theories of 
scientists. His lack of education and limited 
opportunities for research made it necessary for 
him to go over ground which had been satis- 
factorily traversed by others. Thus time and 
strength were wasted by his failure to know 
the results of investigations previously made. 
On the other hand, this was not an unmixed 
evil, as he was free to adopt theories and to 
draw conclusions unhampered by what was 
commonly taught and believed. He made it a 
rule to accept no conclusions which he had 



46 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

not proved to his own satisfaction. While 
thus traversing carefully ground which he felt 
Efforts to that he had fairly tested, Mr. Chapin 

increase his - • o 1 • 

knowledge, lost no opportunity ior correcting his 
errors, for elaborating his theories, and for 
increasing his knowledge. He explained his 
theories with untiring care and earnestness to 
educated men who were guests at the hotel, or 
whom he met anywhere, asking them to point 
out any defects which they might discover, and 
to assist him to clearly state his ideas. There 
are many who can recall conversations held 
with Mr. Chapin which were centred mostly 
on his favorite theme. Whenever the listener 
failed in understanding the point under dis- 
cussion, Mr. Chapin would attribute this to his 
ow r n inability to express himself fluently and to 
make his meaning plain, referring with great 
regret to his consciousness of these deficiencies. 
It never seemed to occur to him that the lis- 
Confidence tener could fail of having the capacity 
soundness needed for understanding these ab- 
ries. struse subjects, if only he himself 

could properly state what was so evident to his 
own mind. So, too, he never entertained any 
doubt regarding the truthfulness and the value 
of his theories because they were not appre- 
hended even by scholarly men. He had un- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 47 

bounded confidence in every one of them, and 
had a firm belief that they would all, sooner or 
later, be accepted by scholars, and would prove 
to be of increasing value to the world. He 
realized that 

" Men exist for the sake of one another : 
Teach them or bear with them." 

He felt deeply the importance of making 
known his theories, even if they brought him 
into opposition with commonly ac- Desire to 

-, . . n . mi , make them 

cepted scientific views. ihose who known. 
advance new truths generally have to suffer 
for them. He fully believed, that " whoever 
hesitates to utter that which he thinks the 
highest truth, lest it should be too much in 
advance of the time, . . . must remember that, 
while he is a descendant of the past, he is a 
parent of the future ; and that his thoughts 
are as children born to him which he may not 
carelessly let die." 

In 1864 Mr. Chapin published anonymously 
a pamphlet of twenty-six pages en- Early pub . 
titled " Gravity and Heat." The lications - 
reception which this modest little work met 
encouraged him to prepare a larger one. 

" Gravity in Nature," a volume of one hun- 
dred and twenty pages, was printed over his 
own name in 1867. The full title of this book 



48 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

was, " The Correlation and Conservation of 
Gravitation and Heat, and Some of the Effects 
of these Forces on the Solar System." 

The story of the preparation of these earlier 
works is truly romantic. 

Feeling that it would be quite impossible for 
Aided by him to express his ideas in good Eng- 
ter. lish, or to do any of the literary work 

necessary for the production of a book, he be- 
gan using his daughter, now Mrs. Haile, as an 
amanuensis and helper. 

Previous to this, when not more than twelve 
years of age, she had spent much time in read- 
ing to him. In order to spare his eyes, which 
were giving him much trouble, he allowed her 
to read aloud even his scientific books. Mrs. 
Haile recalls reading much which was then 
quite incomprehensible to her. 

At first it was necessary to explain his ideas 
over and over again before she could under- 
stand them sufficiently to state them plainly. 
As the work went on, of course, this became 
gradually easier. Laboring under such diffi- 
culties, the work progressed quite slowly, and 
parts had to be written and rewritten until 
whole pages were almost committed to memory 
by the amanuensis. Mr. Chapin greatly en- 
joyed the companionship of his daughter dur- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 49 

ing the progress of these literary labors, and 
appreciated her help. This appears in the ap- 
propriate dedication of his first book, in the 
preparation of which she had filled so important 
a part : — 

" As a mark of parental esteem for her 
attainments, I dedicate these few pages to 
my daughter, my companion and assistant in 
thought and study, amid the cares and per- 
plexities of a distracting business." 

The publication of this book brought Mr. 
Chapin to the notice of the literary Professor 

. Peirce's 

men of the country, who immediately estimate of 

. , , . J . \ Mr. Cha- 

recognized him as a unique man and pin. 
a scholar. The late Professor Benjamin Peirce, 
of Harvard College, used to say that, if Mr. 
Chapin had been given the advantages of an 
early education, he would without doubt have 
become an authority in science. In recogni- 
tion of his attainments, Williams College hon- 
ored him with the degree of M. A. After an 
interval of twenty years, in 1887 Mr. Mr. cha- 
Chapin gave to the world the latest book. 
fruits of his study and meditation in a volume 
with the appropriate title, " Gravitation the 
Determining Force." In the preparation of 
this book he had the very valuable assistance 
of the Rev. M. C. Stebbins, to whose hand the 



50 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 

greatly improved literary cast of the book is 
largely due. This volume, like the former 
one, was dedicated to Mrs. Haile. 

This book was beautifully printed at the Riv- 
erside Press. In the preface Mr. Chapin speaks 
of the very natural satisfaction which he felt 
because many points in his former work, which 
at the time of its publication were considered 
at variance with the current opinions of stand- 
ard authors, had now been practically confirmed 
by conclusions, which had been reached by emi- 
nent scholars, and were now substantially in 
accord with his own views. 

Mr. Chapin was a deeply religious man both 
Mr. Chapin in his beliefs and in his character. 
man. His scientific turn of mind showed it- 

self here, as everywhere. It seemed impossible 
for him to believe that for which he could not 
find exact and full proof. The faith of such 
men, however, when once they have been 
wrought upon by the Spirit of God, is true 
and steadfast. This was the case with Mr. 
Chapin. His apprehension of truth was clear, 
and his religious views were well balanced. 
Even before conversion he was an unusually 
religious man. But for this, he could not have 
passed without contamination through the in- 
fluences with which he was surrounded while a 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 51 

young man. Temptations to which so many- 
yield were nobly resisted, and resulted in mak- 
ing him a stronger and a better man. Mr. 
Chapin's views were strict in regard to the 
practice as well as in regard to the theory of 
religion. The inconsistencies and the unworthy 
lives of certain professing Christians, and the 
differences which are so often magnified to the 
hindrance of the Master's work, tried him more 
than they do most men. 

He was a thorough believer in law, and knew 
that, in the spiritual as truly as in the natural 
world, all laws work out into appropriate re- 
sults. Not more surely does the law of gravity, 
whose workings he had studied so dili- Law of the 
gently, lead every particle of matter on world, 
the earth to seek the centre of the globe, than 
does the law of the religion of Jesus Christ 
draw every one whom it has possessed toward 
Him and toward a holy life. This led him to 
hold a very high ideal of what the life of one 
who professed to be a follower of the meek and 
holy Jesus should be. For this reason he long 
postponed the making of a public profession of 
religion, although he had for years been lead- 
ing a truly Christian life. 

While Mr. Chapin was still very young 
his sister Marcia died. She had long been 



52 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

an invalid, suffering from consumption. Dur- 

A sister's ^ n S ^ er iU nes s she frequently called 
influence. Ethan to her ^side, and talked 

with him on religious subjects. She made 
him promise to think of these things, and to 
try to be a good boy. These conversations 
made a great impression upon him, and this he 
never forgot. Many years after, he used to 
speak with great affection and reverence of this 
sister, who had so early led him to think seri- 
ously of these important matters. Later, when 
about eighteen years of age, he attended a series 
of special services. It was at this time that he 
experienced a change of heart. From 

Conversion. 1 -^ , 1 

that time on JtL/than was always con- 
sidered a Christian. 

It is far too common for even Christians to 
forget that Jesus said to his disciples : " But I 
say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to 
them that hate you, and pray for them that de- 
spitefully use you." Mr. Chapin obeyed this 
command of his Master to a very unusual degree. 
He seldom showed the least resentment. He not 
Freedom only forgave those who had ill-treated 
ment. him, but in all his intercourse with 

them was as kind as though they had done him 
no injury. There are many who can never 
forget his gentle and generous conduct toward 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 53 

those who refused to recognize him as a Christian 
brother. In business, in social intercourse, and 
in fact everywhere, he was most careful to let 
his life " express the holy gospel we profess." 

When spoken to by friends in regard to an 
uncharitable spirit which had been manifested 
toward him, he quietly replied : " I can only 
do my duty. It remains with them to decide 
what their course shall be." 

Seeing his conduct under such trying cir- 
cumstances, one of his acquaintances remarked : 
" That man witnesses more of the spirit of 
Christ than I ever saw in any one else." 

Diffident and retiring as he was, Mr. Chapin 

SOUght Opportunities for religious COn- Conversion 

versation, both for the sake of edifi- pioyee. 
cation and in order to do good. In 1861 a 
Frenchman was employed as an engineer at the 
Massasoit House. Finding him more than or-^ 
dinarily intelligent, Mr. Chapin took the op- 
portunity at odd moments of conversing with 
him. Learning that he was a Republican, they 
conversed freely on political subjects, on which 
they perfectly agreed. Frequently religious 
topics were also discussed. Mr. Chapin soon 
saw that the man, although a Roman Catholic, 
was open to conviction, and was already satis- 
fied that much of the instruction which he had 



54 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

received from the priests was erroneous. He 
therefore sought occasions for turning the 
man's attention to the Bible. He gave Scrip- 
tural proofs for all his statements and instruc- 
tion, carefully explaining what seemed not to 
be understood. All this, and especially Mr. 
Chapin's simple, Christian life, soon bore fruit. 
The man took more and more interest in what 
he was learning from his kind employer, down 
in the hot engine-room, and finally became an 
earnest Christian. From that time on, the two 
spent many hours in planning for a French 
Protestant Church in Springfield, a hope which 
was finally realized in 1880, — one of them 
becoming a constant, liberal, and sympathetic 
helper till the day of his death, and the other 
a pillar in that promising enterprise. 

For a long time previous* to his death Mr. 
Chapin understood that he was suffering from 
an incurable disease, and that there was no 
hope for his recovery. This knowledge natu- 
rally cast something of a shadow upon the last 
days of his life, but it neither soured his spirit 
nor abated his interest in what was going on 
around him. It made him even more thought- 
ful, and he took increasing pleasure in spiritual 
things. 

On the 30th of March, 1888, his pastor, the 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 55 

Kev. Dr. Eustis, died. It was he who had re- 
ceived Mr. Chapin to church member- Death of 
ship twenty-three years before, and ^ofDr. 
who had been his honored and be- Breck - 
loved guide in spiritual things during all that 
period. Ten months later his lifelong friend 
and family physician, Dr. W. G. Breck, was 
also suddenly called away. In both instances 
the sad news was communicated to Mr. Cha- 
pin with a good deal of anxiety. He received 
it, however, with much less emotion than had 
been feared, but there is little doubt that these 
events hastened his death. The decease espe- 
cially of Dr. Breck had come so very unex- 
pectedly that we cannot wonder that it pro- 
duced a shock from which Mr. Chapin njever 
recovered. 

All through the winter he greatly enjoyed 
listening to reading, a part of each Increasing: 
atternoon being devoted to the read- Bible. 
ing of the Bible. Later the other books were 
all discarded, and the Bible was all that seemed 
to meet his need. As one traveling at night 
in a dark and unknown place carries a lan- 
tern to light up his pathway, so this thought- 
ful man, in the near prospect of death, took 
God's Word as the only thing which shed 
light midst the shadows of the dark valley. 



56 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

" This lamp through all the tedious night 
Of life shall guide our way, 
Till we behold the clearer light 
Of an eternal day." 

He found great delight in the Prophecy of 
Isaiah, remarking when it was ended, " I 
never knew before how good it was." Having 
completed that book, he next chose the Psalms. 
On the 18th of February he listened to the 
reading of the first four Psalms. The closing 
verse of the last of these was : " I will both 
lay me down in peace, and sleep : for thou, 
Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." Soon 
Goes up- after the reading was over he went 
the ir ils f t° r upstairs never to come down again. 
time. Two days later he sat up in his room 

to take his tea for the last time. Just a week 
before he had taken a long drive, but on his 
return home felt very weak. His physician 
called to see him in the evening, and was 
shocked to notice what a change had come 
over his patient. About that time, while talk- 
ing with the doctor, he said : " Dr. Breck, I 
know I cannot live much longer. I am ready 
to go. I have been ready to go for a long 
time. All I wish you to do is to make me as 
comfortable as you can." 

Previous to his illness Mr. Chapin had settled 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 57 

ail his affairs with characteristic care and thor- 
oughness. After he was laid aside F ina i busi . 
from active life he repeatedly ex- "rrange- 
plained his plans and wishes to his ments - 
daughters, in order that there should be no 
misunderstanding, and that no one need suf- 
fer for anything which he had left undone. 

On Thursday, February 28, Mr. Chapin 
lay most of the time quietly and Lasthours 
with his eyes closed. When spoken anddeath - 
to, however, he answered intelligently those 
who addressed him. At midnight he affec- 
tionately bade each one " good-night/' call- 
ing one after another by name. At six o'clock 
in the morning, when the window-shade was 
raised, and the light streamed in, he remarked : 
" It is a very fine morning ; it is a very fine 
morning." Later, when the doctor came in, 
he distinctly and intelligently answered all his 
inquiries. His brother, Mr. Marvin Chapin, 
came in about ten o'clock. In answer to his 
question, "How do you feel this morning?" 
he replied, " I feel very well." An hour later 
he called to his wife, " Louisa, Louisa, Louisa ! " 
At noon, when asked if he could swallow, he 
said : " No," which was the last effort that he 
made to speak. Although he once after this 
opened his eyes, and for an hour seemed to 



58 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

recognize those who touched him, yet it was 
evident that his little remaining strength was 
fast passing away. There were no signs what- 
ever of any suffering, and at half past three 
the spirit of the good man peacefully went 
home. 

Mr. Chapin lived to a good old age, nearly 
five years beyond the Scriptural limit of " three- 
score years and ten," but he retained to the last 
all his mental powers. He was a strong, well- 
built man, of striking presence. Had it not 
been for the disease which undermined his 
constitution and took him away, he might still 
have been a moving spirit among us. His 
friends were spared many of the regrets at his 
death which are often felt when loved ones are 
called away. 

Mr. Chapin had, in an unusual degree, done 
Thorough- ^is work. He did not leave behind 
ness. ^^ a num b er f half-completed en- 

terprises. Whatever he had begun he had 
also, to the best of his ability, brought to a 
successful completion. Like some of the beau- 
tiful specimens of his early workmanship, his 
life was a remarkably finished one. The de- 
fects of his life and character were mainly 
due to circumstances over which he had no con- 
trol, but which he manfully struggled to over- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 59 

come. His virtues were numerous and great. 
Just, honorable, public-spirited, mod- character- 
est, kind, generous, and religious are lstlcs * 
some of the characteristics with which various 
friends love to associate his memory. 

He was not famous, but he did his part well, 
during a long and active life, and exerted, even 
upon strangers, an influence which will bear 
fruit when many names of world-wide repute 
shall have been forever forgotten. 

The following lines, written of one of the 
greatest of men, are eminently appropriate 
to the life and character of Mr. Ethan S. 
Chapin : — 

" Great is he who, in some special location, 
as a soldier, a governor, a scientist, does good 
and helpful work for fellow-men. Greater still 
is he who, doing good work in his special occu- 
pation, carries with his devotion to it a human 
nature so rich and true that it breaks through 
his profession and claims the love and honor of 
his fellow-men, simply and purely as a man." 
Mr. Chapin deserves our love and admiration 
chiefly as a noble, Christian man. 

" The splendors of the firmament of time 
May be eclipsed, but are extinguished not ; 
Like stars to their appointed height they climb, 
And death is a low mist which cannot blot 
The brightness it may veil." 



60 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Mr. Chapin' s funeral, on the afternoon of 
The fu- Monday, March 4, was a simple and 
nerai. appropriate service. The following 

account was given in the- next morning's edi- 
tion of the." Springfield Republican : " " There 
was a large attendance, and the services, though 
simple, were impressive. Four ministers took 
part in the exercises, Rev. Dr. Buckingham, 
who had known Mr. Chapin during most of his 
long residence here, Rev. M. C. Stebbins, of 
Cornwall, Vt., Rev. Dr. Burnham, and Rev. 
Mr. Trask. Some very beautiful flowers were 
sent to the house, including a wreath of ivy, 
with English violets, from Mrs. W. G. Breck; 
a spray of camellia with green from Adolph 
Milliez ; a sheaf of wheat from Mrs. H. B. 
Burt ; a wreath of ivy from Mrs. William 
Birnie and others. The casket was festooned 
with ivy, and lilies and roses were placed 
around the room. A quartette, composed of 
George R. Bond, Henry F. Trask, Henry G. 
Chapin, and Edward Morris, sang ' There is a 
Land Immortal,' after which Rev. Mr. Trask 
read selections from the Scriptures. Mr. Steb- 
bins said that he appreciated very highly the 
Mr. Steb- honor conferred upon him by being 

l)ins s tg- 

marks. asked to say a few words in memory 
of his dead friend. Not that it needed mere 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN, 61 

words to add to the dignity and sweetness of 
such a nature as that of* Ethan S. Chapin, be- 
cause his works lived after him. Long after 
the massive buildings that now adorn the 
streets of Springfield shall have crumbled 
away, the influence of the deceased will be re- 
membered, and his memory kept green. Mr. 
Chapin's life was a. very busy one, and when 
his brain was busiest at all those wonderful 
schemes that seemed so incredible years ago, 
we know that he was only living some twenty 
years before his time. In our day his early 
scientific schemes and plans would have been 
more appreciated. His home life was pure and 
happy, and his was always the ready hand 
willing to help others. How much do many 
young men, who set out long ago in life, owe 
to Mr. Chapin ! He was their benefactor and 
friend, and trained the young people around 
him so faithfully that his ideas and influence 
have aided largely in the shaping of their char- 
acters and lives. Mr. Stebbins referred to Mr. 
Chapin's life as being the embodiment of a 
Christian life, and pointed out the many les- 
sons to be learned from it. In business, he 
was fair and honorable, and his word was his 
bond. ' Blessed are the dead that die in the 
Lord.' Mr. Stebbins then made a feeling ref- 



62 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

erence to the many charitable acts of the de- 
ceased, to his acts of mercy, and spoke on his 
varied gifts that had done so much for himself 
and for those around him. Would that more 
lives, he said, in closing, were like that of the 
good man they now so sincerely mourned. Af- 
ter the singing of ' Paradise,' by the quartette, 
Dr. Buckingham spoke briefly, as follows : — 

" When abroad in Paris, some years ago I met 
Dr. Buck- a friend who gave me this advice : 

ingham's m _ . 1 . 

address. ' lhere are certain things you cannot 
do here. You cannot die here.' She meant 
that it was a terrible thing to die abroad. I 
thought then if I were in a railroad accident 
and had to be taken to a hotel, how much 
would I prefer that I might be carried to the 
Massasoit House. Mr. Chapin was a Good 
Samaritan, and strangers were as safe with him 
as if they had been with their own families. I 
am reminded, too, of one that went about the 
old Massasoit House like an angel of mercy, 
Miss Eoxana Chapin. Dr. Seelye told me that 
he believed that she was the best Christian in 
Springfield, and I had met her too often at 
sick-beds and at scenes of misery to deny it. 
We are not pagan in our ideas, and we know 
that there is an immortal life before us, and 
surely so many would not rush into suicide if 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 63 

they knew that there was a life to come. This 
life is only a preparation, a foretaste of the 
joys of heaven. Such a life and hope was that 
of our friend, and he only sleeps to wake 
again. We cheer our sad hearts when we part 
from these dead friends, because we hope to 
meet them again. I am certain that I shall 
know Ethan S. Chapin, for I only know one 
other life like his. What will he not know, 
and what will he not enjoy ? I know he will 
enjoy heaven just as well as he ever did being 
here, and perhaps better, for he will be found 
ministering to others in that far-away land, not 
ministering to the sorrowing, for there is no 
sorrow there, but as a ministering angel. Let 
him sleep on, then, for we part with him only, 
I hope, to meet him again. 

" ' Gathering Home ' was then sung, and the 
services closed with prayer by Rev. Dr. Burn- 
ham. The bearers were D. B. Wesson, Fred- 
erick H. Harris, H. A. Gould, 0. H. Greenleaf, 
W. K. Baker, and J. N. Dunham, and the re- 
mains were placed in the receiving vault in the 
Springfield Cemetery." 



MR. CHAPIN'S SCIENTIFIC VIEWS. 

Many of Mr. Chapin 's ideas were both new 
and startling. If they are true, it is of the 
greatest importance that they be widely known. 

It is hoped that the foregoing sketch of his 
life, with the following notices of the chief 
points in his theories, may be helpful in calling 
attention to the importance of his work. 

Even those who never knew him will join 
in the wish that Mr. Chapin may receive full 
credit for the service which, under unusual 
difficulties, he has rendered to the world in the 
line of scientific scholarship. 

The three most important topics treated in 
Mr. Chapin's books, and those which he dis- 
cussed with the greatest originality, are " Grav- 
itation," " The Physical Condition of Jupi- 
ter," and "The Instability of the Earth's 
Axis." Mr. Chapin took the very advanced 
ground that gravitation determines the den- 
sity, the temperature, and the fluid or solid 
condition of matter. u Heat and gravity are 
correlative." When " gravity is resisted, heat 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 65 

becomes its equivalent." With these data it 
was comparatively easy for him to prove that 
the earth consists of a densely heated molten 
nucleus, surrounded by a thin crust of uniform 
thickness. 

For the past forty years the leading geolo- 
gists, such as Sir Charles Lyell and Sir William 
Thomson, have generally held that the earth is 
a solid body. Only very recently has the tide 
of opinion begun to turn in the direction of 
the theory, held* so strenuously by Mr. Chapin, 
that the centre of the earth must be a molten 
mass of such density that the surface, as it 
cooled, could not sink. The experiments used 
by Mr. Osmond Fisher, Mr. Alfred Russel Wal- 
lace, and others, to prove this idea are just 
such as Mr. Chapin described when he fear- 
lessly advanced his views. It is found to be a 
universal phenomenon that there is an increase 
of heat as we descend below the surface of the 
earth. This increase has been computed to be 
about 1° Fahrenheit for each sixty feet of de- 
scent. There is, however, some variation ac- 
cording to the locality, and the rate of increase 
has been found to be greater as the depth in- 
creases. Basing his estimate on these phenom- 
ena, which, of course, are very meagre, Mr. 
Wallace favors the opinion that at a point 



66 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

twenty miles below the surface of the earth the 
heat must be sufficient to melt rock. 

While making use of known facts in regard 
to the increase of temperature as we descend 
below the earth's surface, Mr. Chapin based his 
theory of the condition of the earth's centre 
upon the law of gravity. He argued that the 
thickness of the earth's crust is determined 
almost entirely by the force of gravity acting 
upon matter in a body of the size and form of 
the earth. 

The same force acting upon Jupiter, a body 
with a volume more than twelve hundred times 
as great as the earth, develops a much larger 
and an intensely hot nucleus, but a much thin- 
ner and denser crust. If the thickness of the 
crust of the earth, as Mr. Chapin was inclined 
to believe, is about fourteen miles, then the 
crust of Jupiter, he estimated, cannot be more 
than two miles thick, while that of our own 
moon, a comparatively insignificant body, must 
be eighty-four miles thick. These conclusions 
are quite at variance with the old theory that 
the distant planets are intensely cold bodies, 
and also, to some extent, with the recent view, 
which considers that Jupiter is more like the 
sun than like the earth, being partially, at 
least, self-luminous, and having no crust. This 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 67 

last theory has been reached by mathematical 
deductions, and was invented to account for 
the condition of things on that planet which 
the telescope and other astronomical instru- 
ments have made known in recent years. When 
Professor Peirce, of Harvard, and Dr. Henry 
Draper first adopted this theory, Mr. Chapin 
greatly rejoiced, feeling that these eminent 
scholars had come to accept, at least in part, 
views which he had published many years be- 
fore. 

Until very recently, it had always been sup- 
posed that the axis of the earth, while the planet 
makes its daily revolutions, and flies along its 
orbit around the sun, remained perfectly stable. 
No one seemed to even consider the possibility 
of anything different. 

Mr. Chapin, advanced the very novel the- 
ory that the earth's " axis of rotation does not 
pass through the centre of the earth," and that 
" the retrograde motion of the moon, when 
compared with the rotation of the earth on its 
axis, causes an instability of the earth's axis, 
and gives an eccentric motion to the earth." 

This discovery was made by Mr. Chapin 
while studying up the vexed subject of tides. 
He had long felt, as many other scholars before 
him had felt, that the commonly received expla- 



68 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

nation of the phenomena of tides was very un- 
satisfactory. He set to work in his quiet and 
thorough way to study the relations of the 
earth and its satellite, and of their various 
movements. In this connection he noticed for 
the first time that the axis upon which the 
earth rotates is unstable. This idea, although 
very differently applied, is now accepted by the 
leading scholars of the day. 

It yet remains to be seen, however, whether 
the theory will prove to be of great and practi- 
cal value, as Mr. Chapin confidently predicted 
that it would. 

Mr. Chapin's theory of the instability of the 
earth's axis, and the consequent eccentric mo- 
tion of our planet, received a few years ago an 
interesting confirmation from an unexpected 
quarter. 

Professor Newcomb, of the Naval Observa- 
tory, Washington, has long been studying the 
very difficult problem of celestial mechanics. 
In the course of his investigations of the moon's 
motion, he arrived at the conclusion that there 
were certain differences between theory and 
observation which had not yet been accounted 
for by the gravitation of known bodies of the 
solar system. Professor Newcomb suggested 
that there were but three possible solutions of 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 69 

this discrepancy : "1. The mathematical anal- 
ysis was not sufficiently extended ; 2. The 
motion of the moon was affected by some force 
different from gravitation ; 3. The time of the 
earth's rotation on its axis was not constant." 

After careful study Professor Newcomb was 
able to demonstrate that the first and second of 
these hypotheses are improbable, and that we 
are, therefore, shut up to the third and some- 
what startling explanation, that the earth's 
time of rotation on its axis is not strictly uni- 
form. 

Even scholars had supposed that the abso- 
lute uniformity of the sidereal day was not to 
be questioned. But Professor Newcomb's re- 
searches have proved that the rate of the 
earth's rotation for a number of years previous 
to 1860 had been slower than the average, 
and that there was a gain of at least a second 
per annum during the next twelve years. 
These facts account for the inequalities in the 
moon's motion which had previously been ob- 
served. 

Various experiments have been tried by 
other astronomers for testing Professor New- 
comb's hypothesis, with this important result, 
that it is now admitted, that " the earth's rota- 
tion time is not strictly constant." 



70 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Mr. Chapin's language on this subject is : 
" The retrograde motion of the moon, when 
compared with the rotation of the earth on its 
axis, causes an instability of the earth's axis 
and gives an eccentric motion to the earth." 

In this connection, it is interesting to note 
that, at a meeting of the International Confer- 
ence on degree measurement, held at Freiburg, 
Germany, in 1891, facts were brought forward 
to show that fluctuations of the earth's axis, 
probably due to changes in the internal mass of 
our planet, exist. Observations carried on sim- 
ultaneously at Berlin, Strasburg, and Prague 
prove that a decrease in latitude, at least in 
middle Europe, has been in progress, and a 
similar phenomenon has been noted in other 
places in Europe. 

All this indicated an alteration in the direc- 
tion of the axis of the earth. That is, the 
poles and the equator, latitude and longitude, 
are not, as is commonly supposed, practically 
fixed data. The amount of ascertained de- 
crease of latitude at the end of the six months' 
period, from August, 1889, to February, 1890, 
was half a second. 

A young astronomer of Berlin, named Mar- 
cuse, who has been a careful observer of the 
changes of latitude in Germany, was sent to 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 71 

the Sandwich Islands in the summer of 1891, 
to make observations with a view to determin- 
ing whether the changes which have been ob- 
served in Europe are due to a real movement 
o£ the pole of the earth, or whether they are 
merely apparent, and due to some atmospheric 
effect. In the former case the latitude at the 
Hawaiian station ought to vary in just the op- 
posite way from that of Berlin and Strasburg, 
but if the cause is atmospheric, there should be 
no such result. 

Mr. Marcuse was accompanied by Mr. Pres- 
ton of our own Coast Survey, who has made 
latitude observations, and has been studying 
the magnetic elements of the island. 

The reports of this expedition, which have 
only very recently been received, have con- 
firmed what was previously surmised. The 
Hawaiian station is on the opposite side of the 
globe from Berlin. Consequently the latitude, 
as had been expected, was found to vary in 
just the opposite way from that which had been 
observed at the stations in Central Europe. 
The theory of the instability of the earth's 
axis may now be regarded as an established 
fact of science. 

On the publication of Mr. Chapin's first book 
the Rev. M. C. Stebbins, who was at that time 



72 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

the Principal of the Springfield High School, 
and who was a thoughtful and intelligent man, 
wrote him the following letter : — 

Springfield, July 18, 1867. 
Mr. E. S. Chapin: 

Dear Sir, — I have read with some care the 
work entitled " Gravity in Nature/' for which 
I am under obligations to you. That the book 
is the product of much study and patient 
thought is evident. Few men are actuated by 
a devotion to science loyal enough to carry 
them through the toil necessary to bring out 
such a work, and especially under the circum- 
stances in which you have labored. 

But while I admire the scholarly enthusiasm 
that the work evinces, I am unable to accept 
all of its premises and conclusions. Even if it 
were true that an isolated column of solid mat- 
ter could not be sustained by its own base be- 
yond a given height, because the pressure would 
develop heat sufficient to liquefy the solid, I 
cannot conceive that the same results would 
follow when the column has become a constitu- 
ent part of the solid crust of the earth. Re- 
sults are here greatly modified by two impor- 
tant laws. First, the arrangement of matter in 
the form of a hollow sphere would tend not 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 73 

only to give the parts ability to sustain each 
the weight of the other, but to give the whole 
structure the greatest power o£ resistance. 

Secondly, the force of gravity diminishes di- 
rectly as the distance diminishes as we pass 
from the surface to the centre of the earth. 

Must we not then look for some other cause 
for the fluidity of the nucleus of the earth ? 
Quite a number of your conclusions seem con- 
nected more or less intimately with these prem- 
ises. 

I am not sure that I fully comprehend the 
entire astronomical argument. A few minor 
errors of statement you would at once recog- 
nize, were your attention called to them. Some 
of the themes which you have treated are so 
abstruse in their nature, and are so imperfectly 
cognizable by the senses, that there is large 
opportunity for difference of opinion among 
thinking men. 

That you may continue to find satisfaction 
in the study of such grand themes of science, 
is the sincere wish of 

Yours truly, 

M. C. Stebbins. 

It is very interesting to know that, after 
further careful study, Mr. Stebbins became 



74 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

such a thorough and ardent convert to Mr. 
Chapin's theories that, twenty years later, he 
aided in the publication of Mr. Chapin's last 
book, all of whose principles he then believed, 
and which he regarded as a substantial contri- 
bution to the cause of science. 

After having read Mr. Chapin's first book 
on gravity, Professor Joseph Henry wrote to 
him as follows : — 

Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, June 20, 1867. 

Ethan S. Chapin, Esq., Springfield, Mass. : 

Dear Sir, — I write to thank you for a 
copy of your work on " The Correlation and 
Conservation of Gravitation and Heat," as a 
present, I presume, to the Library of the 
Smithsonian Institution, and to assure you that 
it will be carefully preserved with the books of 
the Government, now under charge of the 
Library of Congress. 

The study of this subject has, doubtless, 
been a source of much rational gratification to 
you, and although many of your propositions 
may be disputed, I have no doubt you have 
sought to arrive at truth. My own views in 
regard to gravitation and heat, from all the 
phenomena with which I am acquainted, lead 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 75 

me to conclude that they are not convertible 
into each other, though in mechanical energy 
they may be expressed in dynamic equivalents. 
Gravitation is an example of what in science 
has been denominated pure force, acting in- 
stantaneously at the greatest distance, while 
the phenomena of heat are best generalized by 
reference to molecular vibration. 

If the sun were instantly annihilated, the 
planet Neptune would, at the same moment, 
commence moving in a tangent to its present 
orbit, while the last ray of heat from the cen- 
tral body would require several days before its 
effects would be perceptible at the distance of 
the planet. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Joseph Henry. 

During the past twenty-five years, as schol- 
ars have studied the subjects treated in Mr. 
Chapin's books, there has been an increasing 
tendency to accept rather than to refute the 
views advanced in those books. From time to 
time unsought testimony has come in from 
various sources, which has been most gratifying 
to those who believe in the soundness of Mr. 
Chapin's scientific ideas. 

The following paragraph appeared in the 



76 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Springfield " Republican " for December 30, 
1872, and in the New Haven " Palladium " 
two days later : — 

"Mr. E. S. Chapin of this city published, 
several years ago, a philosophic little book, en- 
titled ' Gravity in Nature/ which, among other 
bold and novel theories, advanced the idea that 
the planet Jupiter, instead of being uninhab- 
itably cold, was exceedingly hot. The savants 
rather sneered at the revolutionary proposition 
when it was made, but the whirligig of time, 
along with its other revenges, is bringing them 
around to the same point, and in the last num- 
ber of the c Scientific American/ in the course 
of an article upon the modern spectroscope, 
photometer, and telescope, it is concluded that 
6 Jupiter shines partially by his own light, is, in 
fact, red-hot, and is surrounded by vapors/ — 
which is a cause of gratification to our scientific 
townsman." 

The following is a part of an article, giving 
a sketch of Mr. Chapin's life, which appeared 
under the heading, " Self-made Men/' in the 
" Chimney Corner " for November 7, 1874 : — 

u The love of his leisure hours has been the 
study of various branches of the sciences. In 
1867 he published a small work, entitled 
' The Correlation and Conservation of Gravita- 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 11 

tion and Heat, and Some of the Effects of these 
Forces on the Solar System/ which has at- 
tracted no little attention among learned men. 
His views show deep and original investigation 
and thought and some which were disputed 
when first put forth have more recently re- 
ceived the concurrence of eminent astronomers. 
Mr. Chapin is certainly an enthusiast in this 
field of investigation, which he has pursued 
without the ordinary course of study and 
guides which are enjoyed by professional men, 
but with results which are a high tribute to his 
powers of mind and talent for scientific re- 
search. During a visit of the writer to the 
residence of Mr. Chapin, he gave some expla- 
nations of his investigations, which impressed 
us that, though only claiming to be an amateur 
in them, he had gone deeper than many who 
lay claim to great names in science. 

" From these facts, it will be seen that Mr. 
Chapin is decidedly a remarkable man. Thrown 
upon the cold world to gain his own livelihood 
at an extremely early age> he bravely com- 
menced the struggle which has resulted in his 
securing an honorable fortune. 

" Fractical and shrewd in all business opera- 
tions, he has exerted an influence second to 
none of his contemporaries. But he has also 



78 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

found the time and inclination for intellectual 
investigations of a nature which it is a rare 
thing for any person in the mere business walks 
to attempt." 

Soon after the publication of " Gravitation 
the Determining Force/' the following article 
appeared in the Springfield " Daily Union : " — 

" Springfield may well indulge some meas- 
ure of local pride in view of the fact that one 
of the busiest of her business men has found 
time and inclination to observe, experiment, and 
follow out, by processes of shrewd and logical 
reasoning, to a clear solution, some of the more 
abstruse problems, astronomical and terrestrial. 
During the years when Mr. Ethan S. Chapin, 
as one of the proprietors of the Massasoit 
House, was doing his share to give it national 
reputation as a first-class hotel, he found time 
to study the working of the forces of nature. 
More than twenty-five years since, Mr. Chapin 
became satisfied that the influence of gravita- 
tion determines the form, motions, internal and 
superficial condition of all the bodies that move 
in space. From the fact that a vertical column 
of matter is more and more dense the farther 
you recede from the vertex, and that an in- 
crease of density caused by gravitation occa- 
sions an increase of temperature, and this 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 79 

lessens the force of cohesion, it becomes an 
inevitable inference that by descending toward 
the earth's centre a limit will be reached be- 
yond which every solid substance will be fused. 
The greater the mass of the sun or planet, the 
stronger is the force of gravity upon or near 
its surface, and consequently the nearer its 
surface the fluid line will be. Following out 
this reasoning Mr. Chapin concludes that the 
body of the sun is fluid and intensely hot ; that 
the 'melted nucleus of Jupiter must be com- 
paratively large, its crust dense and thin, with 
a great conducting power that keeps the sur- 
face at a high temperature.' It is worthy of 
note that Mr. Chapin put forth these views in 
his little book, ' Gravity in Nature.' . . . How 
much in advance of the scientists Mr. Chapin 
was is indicated by this quotation from ' The 
Annual Cyclopedia for 1880 : ' ' Among the 
papers read at a meeting of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society on May 14, 1880, was one of 
great value by Dr. Henry Draper, of New York. 
The facts now obtained by spectroscopic inves- 
tigation seem clearly to indicate, as Dr. Draper 
remarks, that Jupiter is still hot enough to give 
out light, though perhaps only in a periodic or 
eruptive manner.' 

" Some conclusions recorded by Mr. Chapin 



80 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

have a special interest because of the striking 
confirmation they have received by the recent 
commotions along the Atlantic coast. Mr, 
Chapin, in speaking of the earth's crust, says : 
'Making due allowance for modifying causes, 
it seems probable that it is less than fourteen 
miles in thickness.' Again : ' Earthquakes 
occur most frequently where the disturbing 
forces are the most intense and act the most in 
unison, as when the earth is in that part of her 
orbit nearest the sun, and the moon is at her 
least distance from the earth, or when the sun 
and moon are in the same line with the earth, 
and a high tide in consequence rests on the 
area about to be depressed. ... As the sun 
passes the equator twice every year (March 21 
and September 21), and the tides are the high- 
est when the sun is in that vicinity, earthquakes 
are frequent when the sun is near the equinox.' 
Mr. Chapin might well be interested in the fol- 
lowing item which he cut from a paper a few 
days since and forwarded to Mr. Stebbins : 
' The moon was in perigee at 2 a. m., Au- 
gust 29 ; new moon at 8 a. m., the same day, 
acting in a direct line with the sun (the eclipse 
of the sun occurred at 5 A. M.) ; extremely high 
tides therefore occurred for several days follow- 
ing. The moon's upper transit at Charleston 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 81 

occurred at 2.22 p. m., August 31. The high 
tide following was at 9.35 p. m., twenty min- 
utes before the shock occurred.' 

" Mr. Chapin has consequently had the best 
possible indorsement and verification of his 
conclusions in their subsequent acceptance by 
scientific men and in the processes of nature 
itself, and we congratulate our townsman heart- 
ily upon his now recognized and confirmed 
scientific deductions.' ' 

At the time of Mr. Chapin's death there was 
a long article in the same paper from which we 
quote : — 

" The scientific side of Mr. Chapin's life and 
mental endowment was really remarkable, and 
had he made scientific study his work rather 
than his recreation and diversion he would have 
ranked among the very highest authorities in 
the scientific world. Indeed he lived to see 
many of his views formally indorsed by promi- 
nent scientific men years after he had adopted 
them, and amid the incessant and distracting 
cares of a busy life he wrought out by processes 
of shrewd and logical reasoning some of the 
more abstruse astronomical and terrestrial prob- 
lems. 

" The extraordinary commotions along the 
Atlantic coast in the late summer of 1886, cul- 



82 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 

minating in the Charleston, S. C, earthquake, 
were in direct confirmation of Mr. Chapin's 
conclusions, and it is a source of pride and sat- 
isfaction to Mr. Chapin's townsmen that he 
reached, seemingly almost by intuition, results 
which have now become part and parcel of 
accepted scientific knowledge." 

On the same day the Springfield " Republi- 
can " also printed an interesting sketch of Mr. 
Chapin's life. Speaking of his scientific and 
literary tastes, it says : — 

" In spite of the duties of hotel management, 
which keep a man on the jump from basement 
to the top floor, conversant with every detail 
of kitchen, dining-room, and sleeping-rooms, 
Mr. Chopin found time to study physics and 
astronomy, and to evolve a theory which had 
haunted his mind for some time, that gravity 
is the determining force in all natural phe- 
nomena. In 1864 he published his idea in a 
pamphlet, entitled ' Gravity and Heat,' and 
three years later, with the assistance of his 
daughter, Mrs. Haile, expanded the theory into 
a book of one hundred and twenty pages, 
printed by Samuel Bowles & Co., and given to 
the trade by Lewis J. Powers & Bros. The 
title of the volume was, ' The Correlation and 
Conservation of Gravitation and Heat, and Some 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 83 

of the Effects of These Forces on the Solar 
System.' In his preface he acknowledges that 
his deductions are contrary to accepted theories, 
but he is content to wait long, if necessary, for 
an impartial reader. Twenty years later, in 
1887, he gave to students another volume of 
one hundred and sixty-nine pages, from the 
Riverside Press of Cambridge, to which he gave 
the simple title, ' Gravitation the Determining 
Force.' In the brief preface he recalls his 
former publications, and notes with pride that 
several scientists, by independent research and 
experiment, have reached conclusions substan- 
tially in accord with the principles and theories 
which he laid down twenty years before." 

The following very appreciative article ap- 
peared in the Springfield " Republican " of May 
10, 1891, under the head of " Popular Science 
Gleanings : " — 

" The theories in physical science of our late 
townsman, Ethan S. Chapin, appear to have 
been reiterated in an important particular at 
the International Conference on degree measure- 
ment, held some months since at Freiburg. 
Much was said at this conference of the fluctu- 
ation of the earth's axis, probably due, it was 
explained, to the changes in the internal mass 
of our planet. In his book entitled ' Gravita- 



84 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

tion the Determining Force/ published some 
years since, Mr. Chapin seems to have antici- 
pated to a considerable extent the professional 
astronomers in this matter. Much space in this 
work is devoted to demonstrating, contrary to 
the generally received opinion of the time, the 
instability of the earth's axis. As Mr. Chapin's 
reasoning is accompanied by copious reference 
to illustrative figures, it will be difficult to do 
it justice in a newspaper paragraph. It is suf- 
ficient, perhaps, to say that he attributes this 
axial instability to the influence of the moon 
and sun. These extracts from the book in 
question give an inkling of the line of argu- 
ment pursued : — 

" ' The line in the earth that has the least 
motion, I shall designate as the axis of rota- 
tion. That line does not pass through the true 
centre of the earth, but at a little remove from 
it. As its angular position from a line joining 
the moon and the centre of the earth remains 
invariable, the retrograde motion of the moon, 
when compared with the rotation of the earth 
on its axis, causes an instability of the earth's 
axis, and gives an eccentric motion to the 
earth.' 

" ' The influence of the moon on the earth 
causes the axis of rotation to be removed from 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 85 

the geometrical centre of the earth, giving the 
latter an eccentric motion. The retrograde mo- 
tion of the moon, when taken in connection 
with the diurnal rotation of the earth, causes 
the earth's axis to be unstable, as it is continu- 
ally dropping back to meet the moon. While 
the earth's centre comes up at the end of the 
yearly revolution to the line from which it 
started, the surface lags behind, in consequence 
of the eccentric motion caused by the instabil- 
ity of the earth's axis.' 

" ' When the sun and planets act in conjunc- 
tion with the moon, or when the distances be- 
tween them and the earth are diminished, the 
axis of the earth deviates more from the true 
centre, and the eccentricity is increased ; so, 
also, when the sun and planets act in opposi- 
tion to the moon, or the distances between 
them and the earth are increased, the dis- 
placement of the axis of rotation and the 
consequent eccentricity are proportionately les- 
sened.' " 

Mr. Chapin sent copies of his last book, as 
soon as it was published, to a number of lead- 
ing scholars in various parts of the country. 
Of the letters received in reply, those from 
President Hill, of Harvard College, President 
Chapin, of Beloit College, and from Mr. C. I. 



86 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Walker, of Charleston, S. C, will be read with 
interest : — 

Portland, November 25, 1887. 
Mr. E. S. Chapin: 

My dear Sir, — I have read your little vol- 
ume on Gravitation with a great deal of inter- 
est. It presents many points of physics in a 
very clear light, and suggests several new and 
valuable ways of looking at sundry points. 

Of course, you cannot expect that I should 
agree with all you say. Take, for example, 
glaciation. While it is true that very many of 
the phenomena can be perfectly explained, as 
you say, without supposing greater areas of 
glaciers than the present, and while I agree 
strongly with you, as to the fallacy of " geolo- 
gical horizons," yet there are some phenomena 
that seem to me to point unmistakably to ex- 
tensive glacial epochs. 

Again, in regard to the tides, to the accelera- 
tion of the moon's orbit, to the precession of 
the equinoxes, and other astronomical points, 
your condemnation of certain views, and estab- 
lishment of different positions, remind me of 
what an old (eighty years) clergyman said to 
me recently, about theological discussions : " We 
all are trying to say the same thing," said 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 87 

he, " but neither understands what the other 
means." 

The best mathematicians frequently translate 
their mathematics very poorly into common 
language. Translate their mathematics more 
accurately into common speech, and it would 
frequently agree much more closely with your 
views. Or put your views into mathematical 
terms, and they would come to very similar 
mathematical formulae to theirs. 

There is one point which I have long 
thought that the mathematical astronomers 
neglected, and I am glad to find that you have 
thought so too, the question, namely, whether 
the sun's proper motion, in other words the 
motion of the solar system among the stars, 
has or has not any perceptible effect on the 
movements in the system itself. 

Langley's volometer, and his boiling of 
water by unconcentrated sunlight on the top 
of a non-thawing glacier, are very wonderful 
additions to the data for speculations on these 
higher subjects. 

Yours respectfully, 

Thomas Hill, 



88 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

Charleston, S. C, October 28, 1887. 
Mr. E. S. Chapin: 

My dear Sir, — I am just in receipt of a 
copy of your book, " Gravitation the Determin- 
ing Force/' and beg to return my thanks for 
your very flattering remembrance. I shall read 
it with great pleasure, and, I am sure, with 
equal profit. The practical experience I have 
had in seismic disturbances creates considerable 
interest in the subject for me. 
Again thanking you, I remain^ 

Yours truly, 

C. I. Walker. 

Beloit College, 
Beloit, Wis., December 5, 1887. 

Ethan S. Chapin, Esq. : 

Dear Sir, — I beg you to accept my thanks 
for your book, entitled " Gravitation the De- 
termining Force," which came to-day. I gave 
a little leisure this afternoon to its examination, 
with interest. Its discussions run on a line out- 
side the range of my special studies. I do not 
feel competent to judge of the merits of the 
argument, but I am much pleased with its style, 
so terse and clear and of pure English, with 
the evidence it gives of thoughtful and original 
scientific study, and with the harmonizing of its 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 89 

conclusions with the Biblical records of the 
Creation. 

I wonder that amid your absorbing business 
occupations you have found time and vigor 
for such profound investigations. It honors 
the Chapin name. 

I am sorry that I had not the pleasure of 
meeting you at the recent setting up of the 
statue to our honored progenitor. 

I am glad to see that we both belong to the 
seventh generation, and come down from Dea. 
Samuel through his son Japhet. 

Gratefully yours, 

A. L. Chapin. 

Mr. Chapin was a reverent man. His studies 
were conducted in a Christian spirit. He 
found that his love for the Bible put no con- 
straint upon him in his scientific investigations, 
nor did the conclusions to which these investi- 
gations led oblige him to alter his estimation 
of the Word of God. It might have been 
supposed that the fearless and independent 
character of his methods, and the originality of 
his views, would lead him into eccentricities of 
religious opinion, but such was not the case. 
His studies, instead of undermining, strength- 
ened his faith in God and his confidence in 



90 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

the Bible. " The more spiritual is a man's re- 
ligion, the more expansive and broad it always 
is." The closing paragraphs of his last work 
are the thoughtful and worthy words of a 
Christian scholar. 

" As the density of matter depends upon the 
conditions determined by the force of gravita- 
tion, matter must have existed prior to its con- 
densation, in a gaseous or nebulous form. I 
believe that this view of the primitive condi- 
tion of matter harmonizes with the account of 
creation given by Moses in the Book of Gen- 
esis. From that we learn that the heavens 
and the earth had a material beginning. As 
in the first chapter of St. John we are told of 
the spiritual beginning, or the entrance of the 
Spirit into the world, Moses tells us that the 
matter of which the earth is composed ' was 
without form/ indicating that it was a very 
rare fluid, to us ' a void,' and that darkness 
was upon the deep, or abyss of celestial space, 
until the ' Spirit of God moved (by the agency 
of gravitation) upon the face of the waters,' or 
fluids, to condense them. 'And there was 
light ; ' when the surface of the earth became 
refrigerated and dark, ' God divided the light 
from the darkness,' but the length of time in- 
tervening is not specified. ' And God called 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 91 

the light day, and the darkness he called night. 
And the evening and the morning were the 
first day/ or period. 

" It is well to note the words of St. Peter : 
1 But, beloved, be not ignorant o£ this one 
thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thou- 
sand years, and a thousand years as one day.' 
It was necessary that the fluid, or ' waters 
w r hich were under the firmament,' should be 
divided from the ' waters which were above the 
firmament ' in the formation of the solar sys- 
tem from nebulous matter. After the waters 
were thus divided, and the planets formed, 
6 God called the firmament,' or celestial space, 
6 heaven.' 

The primitive condensation would cause a 
high temperature. The waters were held in 
suspense until the surface refrigeration formed 
mountains and valleys as we are told : ' There 
went up a mist from the earth and watered the 
whole face of the ground.' When the surface 
temperature became sufficiently reduced to al- 
low the suspended fluids to be condensed, 
' the waters under the heavens were gathered 
together into one place,' the depressed portions 
of the earth, 'and the dry land appeared.' 
When the overhanging mist became condensed, 
' the lights were set,' or became visible, ' in 



92 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

the firmament of the heavens, to give light 
upon the earth.' The first verse of the first 
chapter of Genesis, in an introductory way, 
speaks of the creation of the heavens and the 
earth. The second, third, fourth, and fifth 
verses speak more particularly of the creation 
of the earth. The sixth, seventh, and eighth 
relate to the creation of the solar system. The 
ninth to the thirteenth inclusive speak still 
further of the creation of the earth. The 
fourteenth to the eighteenth inclusive tell us 
of the earth and the appearance of the solar 
system, after the surrounding mist, or waters, 
had been gathered together in one place. The 
last cited verses determine the division of time 
into seasons and days and years as we have 
them now, except that the length of the day 
has decreased by a very small fraction, since 
the fourth day, or period, of creation, by the 
refrigeration or very slight contraction, of the 
earth which took place in the early period. 

" We are, therefore, led by revelation, as well 
as by science, to believe that the matter of 
which the earth and planets were formed origi- 
nally pervaded space in a homogeneous nebu- 
lous form. If the density of the solar system 
were estimated in accordance with this theory, 
a cubic mile of such matter, it is said, would 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 93 

weigh less than a cubic inch of our atmosphere, 
and space thus occupied might well be called a 
6 void.' 

" When the matter of the solar system was 
in a nebulous form, and the force which caused 
particle to attract particle was imparted to it, 
the planetary system, following nature's laws, 
took its form fitted for life. 

u If the force of gravitation should be re- 
moved from the solar system, many prophe- 
cies in Holy Writ would be fulfilled. The sun 
would 6 become black,' owing to expansion ; 
but the moon and the earth would be melted 
and ' become as blood ; ' ' and the stars,' or 
planets, by expansion, ' would fall unto the 
earth, and the heavens depart as a scroll when 
it is rolled together.' Rev. vi. 12-14 ; Isaiah 
xxxiv. 4. 

" Independent of translating forces, the ex- 
pansion of matter in so many conflicting direc- 
tions might tend to restore comparative rest. 

" Again, if we look out into the starry heavens, 
the probability that the earth is to be burned 
up is confirmed. Astronomers have computed 
that more than fifteen hundred fixed stars have 
disappeared within the last three centuries. 
Some of these stars may have become dark and 
invisible by surface refrigeration, as is the case 



94 ETHAN SAMUEL CHAPIN. 

with the earth. Others have given the most 
indisputable evidence of having been con- 
sumed. Their light has broken forth with 
such splendor that they could be seen by the 
naked eye, at noonday, and at night through a 
canopy of clouds. After the conflagration had 
been visible for a few months, the stars disap- 
peared. 

" May the Creator of the universe grant that 
we may be prepared for that hour, when our 
works shall be tried by fire." 

In these days of scientific and theological 
ferment the old landmarks are rapidly being 
removed. While fearlessly accepting truth, 
even when it seems to be in conflict wdth cher- 
ished opinions, we need not make haste to re- 
ceive ideas still under discussion, however ar- 
dently they may be championed. Of one thing, 
however, we may be fully confident, that no- 
thing can deprive us of those great and abiding 
spiritual verities which Christian experience and 
Revelation have made the common heritage of 
the world. 

" The Christian scholar can well afford to be 
patient, knowing that we have all eternity to 
learn God in ; it would be a poor prospect if 
we could get very far in our lesson here. We 
must expect to be puzzled and baffled again 



ETHAN SAMUEL CHAP IN. 95 

and again ; only do not let us get impatient, 
and weary of the search, or feel tempted to 
think that He is nowhere because we cannot 
yet reach to the height of His vision." 



